Can You Love Someone You Don't Know?
by 2310Babixz
Summary: I don't want to spoil it! A school shooting happens, and changes happen to the Fosters family.
1. The Shooting

The laughs and gossip of her fellow classmates filled Callie's ears. She let out a heavy sigh as she slammed her locker closed. She had a few minutes until her next class, and it was around this time Mariana would drop by and they would walk and talk to kill some time. She kept an eye out for her, but she didn't see her anywhere.

"Hey Callie," a familiar deep voice said. Callie rolled her eyes and decided that if Mariana wanted to talk to her, she's meet up with her on the way. She started walking the usual route to her classroom, trying to ignore Brandon.

"Callie, wait," he called behind her.

Callie picked up her pace, desperately trying to get away. Her efforts failed as Brandon grabbed her elbow, bringing her to a stop.

She gritted her teeth as she turned around to look her brother in the eyes.

"I'm sorry about the fight we had," Brandon said.

She didn't know what it was, but there was something on his face that made Callie think that Brandon didn't truly mean it. She's had it with Brandon, and she doesn't see why she should be forced to make amends with him when he obviously could care less.

"Whatever," Callie replied.

Brandon rolled his eyes and turned away from her, walking in the same direction he had come from.

Callie decided to ignore it and continue walking.

"Hey Cal," Mariana said as she turned around.

Callie smiled seeing her younger sister. She really like having a sister, and even though they didn't get along too well before Callie became part of the family, they were pretty close now.

"Hey," Callie said.

"So I need your help with Zac," Mariana started.

Callie's eyes widened as she thought of the humorous but not surprising scenario; Mariana asking for help with boys. Pretty typical.

"Okay..." Callie said.

Mariana fidgeted with her hands, not really sure how to start, so she just went for it.

"We kissed," she finally said.

"Wow, how was it?" Callie asked.

Mariana thought back to all her problems and friendship with Zac, and was honestly not sure why he was treating her like this, like kissing her was a mistake.

"It was great, but later... he said that he didn't want a relationship," she said.

"Ouch," Callie said.

"Yeah, and I think his mom has something to do with it, but he won't say," Mariana said.

As they passed by the lockers, Talya watched them, overhearing their conversation. Watching Callie walk past her like it was no problem made her blood boil. Talya was certain that all the problems prevalent to her was Callie's fault.

Talya had big plans for today, and the lump in her pocket cemented the deal. Talya knew at this point, there was no way she could turn back.

She slowly started following her target, listening to their conversation closely.

"Why would his mom have a problem?" Callie asked.

"I don't know, maybe she found out about the panties," Mariana said.

She heard Callie scoff.

"If Talya had never given you that advice, you would never be in this situation," Callie said.

Overhearing that, Talya's blood wasn't just boiling - it was steaming. She truly was steaming mad.

"My advice?" she finally spoke up.

Callie and Mariana turned around to see her standing there. Seeing the wild look in her eyes, they both felt immediately uneasy.

"Just ignore her," Callie urged Mariana, trying to escape the situation, but Talya was not going to allow for that.

"DON'T..." she shouted, immediately making both Callie and Mariana jump. They both realized at this moment that something was wrong, they just didn't know what.

Above them the bell rang to go to the next class. All the students around them started scurrying to their classes, but Mariana, Callie, and Talya seemed glued to their spots in the hall.

"Walk... away... from me," Talya finished.

Mariana felt totally frozen. She had seen creepy scenes like this in movies, the kind of movies her parents were still wary about her watching.

Callie was more concerned about how she could figure out what was going on. She had never seen someone act so strange, and it made her uneasy.

"Talya, what's wrong?" she finally asked.

"What's wrong with me?!" Talya asked, walking up to Callie and getting in her face. She was so close, Callie had to take a few steps back.

Mariana watched in confusion and fear, afraid a fight might start out.

"You are my problem Callie! You have ruined my life! If you had never come around, Brandon would still be with me! We'd be happy! Nothing would have changed! You ruined _everything!_" she shouted in Callie's face. With every step Talya took, Callie took a step backwards.

"Talya, I am really sorry about what happened between you and Brandon. I really am... but your starting to freak me out," Callie said as calmly as she could.

"Talya, just leave us alone," Mariana said behind the two of them.

Talya immediately whipped around to look Mariana in the eyes, and, fearing for her sister, Callie ran over to Mariana instinctively.

"Mariana, go to your class room," Callie said, urging her to go, even shoving her, but Mariana refused to move.

"I'm not going anywhere, I need to protect you," Mariana said.

"No, I need to protect you," Callie said back.

"Her problem is with me, not you, so don't get involved," Callie said.

Looking to her side, Callie could see through the glass frame around the door that there was a tenth grade class going on, the same grade as Mariana. Zac was in there, and Callie wondered that if needed, she could get Mariana in there.

"You stay out of this, little girl," Talya said, now turning her attention on Mariana.

"Leave her out of this," Callie said, trying to shield her sister with her own body.

"No," Talya said simply.

Talya started shaking her head and she smiled, even though there were tears flowing from her eyes.

"I want to annihilate every single one of you Fosters," Talya said.

Mariana's breathing stopped, as she realized that a fight wasn't about to go down; something much worst was going to happen.

Callie examined Talya's body really quickly, trying to find something that Talya could use to hurt them. Her eyes traveled down Talya's torso, and there, just under Talya's shirt, in her jean pocket... there it was.

A handgun.

Callie ran her tongue on the inside of mouth. She knew what she had to do now.

"Talya, I'm the one who hurt you," she started.

"I don't care," Talya shouted.

"I hate _all _of you!" she added.

Callie was going to have to pull some strings if she wanted this to work.

"Look, your problem is with me. Not Mariana. She didn't do anything to hurt you," Callie said. Looking into Talya's eyes, though, she could tell that Talya wasn't budging and that her plan wasn't working.

"She likes you. She really likes you. Brandon likes her. Brandon loves Mariana. If you hurt Mariana, Brandon will hate. He will hate you, and he will never love you again. Brandon doesn't like me. If you hurt me, he won't care. Don't hurt Mariana," Callie said. Some of it was lies, but she had to do it.

"Fine. I'll just take you instead," Talya said.

Callie's heart broke, now knowing what those words _really _meant.

Callie slowly turned around.

"Mariana, this is you class. Go in there," Callie said.

Mariana was confused by all this. She wasn't sure what Callie was doing, or more importantly, why she was doing it.

"That isn't my classroom," she said.

"Yeah it is, see, there's Zac, and over there is Kelsey. Go in there," Callie said. She walked over to the classroom and opened the door, interrupting the class room.

Mariana was confused, but she walked into the classroom, following her sister's orders.

Just before she got out of reach, Callie stood right behind her, body to body, and whispered vital information into her sisters ears.

"Tell the teachers Talya has a gun," she whispered in her ear.

Mariana froze, realizing now what Callie was doing, and that Callie was about to go back into the hallway with someone who had a gun. She turned around to stop her, but before she made a full spin around, the door closed behind her. Callie's faced appeared in the glass on the side of the door. She could see tears in her sisters eyes as she mouthed the words "I love you."

"Your not in this class," the teacher said.

Mariana still stood frozen, watching as her sister walked away from the glass, and she could not longer see her, her desperation growing deeper and deeper.

"Mariana, what are you doing?" Zac asked from his seat in the first row.

Mariana's cheeks soon became slippery with tears, and she slowly turned to Zac.

Zac's eyes were filled with confusion and worry as he was the look on his friends face.

"Miss, your going to have to leave," the teacher said.

Mariana turned to look at her teacher, and she prepared to tell the teacher her biggest fear.

Outside, Callie prepared herself.

"You shouldn't have done what you did," Talya said.

Callie nodded her head.

"I know. I was horrible, and I still haven't forgiven myself."

The last part was a lie, but Callie was willing to say anything to get out of her situation.

Talya began to shake as she laid her back pack down.

"You made me do this," Talya said. Callie slowly began to walk away.

Taking backwards steps back, Callie tried walking to the end of the hallway.

She watched as Talya slowly pulled the silver handgun out from her jean pocket.

"It doesn't matter how fast you walk," Talya said.

"This baby is faster," she said, holding her gun up.

"I know," Callie said.

Talya smiled, though she was still shaking.

"This was a lot easier that I thought it was going to be," she said.

Callie just nodded her head. If she could get to the staircase, she could jump over the handrail and make it to the lower level before Talya even realized. She just needed to stall Talya without making her mad.

"I was so wrong to steal Brandon away from you," Callie said.

"You were. You were very wrong," Talya said.

"I never should have done it," Callie said. Getting closer and closer to the staircase. She looked over her shoulder for a split second, and saw that she was close enough to possibly run to the stairs... almost.

"Your not going to make it to the staircase," Talya said.

Callie looked at Talya, and knew in her heart, that was probably true. She couldn't not try though.

Talya slowly raised the gun up, closing on eye so she could focus on Callie. Once she set her target, she closed her eyes. She was too cowardly to watch her victim get hit.

The second she saw Talya close her eye, Callie turned away, and started to run as fast as she could.

Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough.

Talya shot once she heard Callie's footsteps, hitting her first at the very bottom of her head, and then again in the back.

The shot's pushed Callie over the edge, literally, and sent her tumbling down the stairs, crushing her bones and sculls on every step.

From inside the classroom, Mariana screamed.

"Callie!" she screamed repeatedly.

The whole entire class went into their lock-down procedure, all of them running to back of the room, except Mariana, who sprinted to the door.

Zac immediately jumped up, grabbing onto Mariana, and with adrenaline running through his body, he managed to pull Mariana all the way back to the classroom.

Zac covered her screams with his mouth, while the teacher gathered the student in the back of the room, and went to the front of the room to call the front office, and put the sheet of paper in her door window.

Zac leaned down into Mariana's ear.

"If you don't stop screaming, she'll come in her and kill us. Is that what you want?" Zac asked.

Mariana continued to kick and cry.

"No!" she yelled into his hand.

"Then _shut up,_" Zac said.

Kelsey's eyes teared up; never had she seen her best friend in so much despair.

Mariana just sat their and cried into Zac's hand, knowing something had happened to her sister.


	2. Stef Finds Her

"I'm sorry Mariana, but I had to protect you. You were screaming like crazy, and I didn't want her to come in here and hurt us," Zac whispered in Mariana's ear. She just sat there, limp, tears still strolling down her face. All she could feel was sadness, and fear. In a way, it made her numb.

She could feel everyone's eyes on her, but she ignored them. It had been a few minutes since Zac got Mariana to stop screaming, but it felt like centuries.

Outside, Stef Foster held her gun up in defense. When she heard the call that there had been a shooting at the school her kids went too, mama bear knew she had to protect her cubs.

She turned down the hallway with the rest of the cops behind her. She saw Talya standing at the end of the hallway, holding the gun and just staring down the stair case. That was all that she could see.

"Talya," Stef called out. She started walking down the hallway to her, signaling to the other cops that she was armed.

Talya slowly turned around. Tears were going down her face, and she looked like she was in pain, but she didn't say anything.

"Talya, put the gun down," Stef said. Talya just stared at her.

"Put the gun down," Stef yelled.

Talya wouldn't move.

"Talya, if you don't put the gun down, we'll shoot," Stef said, making it very clear that if Talya made a move towards the police, she could die.

"I don't care. Shoot me. I'm going to die anyways," Talya said.

"Why? Did you shoot someone? They said there was a shooting, did you shoot someone?" Stef asked.

Talya smiled slightly, and threw the gun on the ground.

The police surrounding Stef ran to Talya, immediately restrain her.

Talya laughed, and one of the police man looked down the stairs to see little Callie's body, defenseless and bloody. He turned to Stef, and Stef could see in his eyes that it was something truly horrible. The police officer knew it was her daughter.

"What is it?" Stef asked.

He didn't say anything, so Stef decided to see for herself, but before she could take more than a couple steps, Talya spoke up.

"I killed your daughter," Talya said.

Stef froze in utter shock and fear as the other policeman took Talya away. One of them, the one who saw Callie, stayed behind.

He just looked Stef in the eyes, and showed sympathy.

Stef, still not knowing who got shot, walked to the stair case and looked down.

"Callie?" she asked.

There she was; her sweet daughter covered in her own blood. She wasn't moving.

Stef stood frozen for a moment, but immediately jumped into action, running down the stairs to her daughter.

"Callie!" she yelled, shaking her, smacking her, doing whatever she could to try and wake her up.

She held her ear up to Callie's mouth and nose, but didn't hear anything, so she held her fingers up to the vein in Callie's neck, and, though it was faint, she felt a pulse.

"Callie…" she said to herself, knowing her daughter had a chance.

She turned to the police officer at the top of the steps.

"Go to the principal's office, get on the intercom, and tell them that Brandon Foster, Jesus Foster, Mariana Foster, and Jude Foster need to go to Lena's office when the other student's are being escorted out, the vice principal. Don't go to Lena's office," she said.

The police officer nodded his head, and decided to take the other stair way.

He made his way to the principal's office, and knocked on the door.

"Police, open up," he said. Luckily, the shades were still open, so she could see that it really was a police officer.

She crawled out from behind her desk and opened the door.

"What's going on?" she asked the officer.

"We apprehended the suspect, and we found one student shot. I don't know if she's dead or not," he said.

"I was sent here to make an intercom announcement," he added.

The principal nodded her head and allowed him access.

The officer walked over to the intercom and pressed the button.

"This is Officer Stephenson. We have found the suspect, and they are in police custody. We will do one sweep of the school, and then students will be escorted out of the class rooms. However, Brandon Foster, Jesus Foster, Mariana Foster, and Jude Foster need to be escorted to Lena Adams Fosters office. A police will escort each of these students separately to the Adams Fosters office. All other students will be escorted outside. Do not stop at your locker, do not stop for a drink of water, just go outside," the officer said. He ended the announcement and ran outside to show the EMS where to go.

Inside their classrooms, and inside her office, every single Foster was sitting there, worried about their family. It wasn't strange for the Fosters kids to be called to their mother's office, but when they didn't hear Callie's name, they all became worried. They all hoped it was a mistake.

In the staircase, Stef watched over her daughter as she waited for EMS to arrive. She watched as Callie's eyelids slowly opened, showing her little brown eyes.

"Callie?" Stef asked.

Callie attempted to speak, but couldn't make any really make any words come out of her mouth. She knew what she was trying to say, but she couldn't make words, only sounds.

"Shh, don't speak, don't speak," Stef said.

Callie didn't hear her though, and she continued to try to speak.

Stef leaned down so she could look Callie in the eyes.

"Don't talk. You were shot, but you're alive. You're going to be taken to the hospital, and everything is going to be okay. Momma's here," she said.

Callie's eyes, heart, and head filled with fear. Her fear grew deeper when she realized she couldn't hear everything that Stef said. She heard that she was shot but alive, and that she would be taken to the hospital, but that was it. Callie felt utterly paralyzed and fearful for her life.

Stef watched as her daughter coughed and choked while she started to cry. Stef wanted more than anything to be able to hold her daughter close to her, stroke her hair, and tell her that everything would be okay, but of course, she couldn't.

Stef cried along with her. She continued rubbing her back and calming.

"It's okay, you're going to be alright," she said.

They sat there, watching the other cry, as the EMS arrived.

Stef watched as her daughter scream out in pain as the EMS moved her onto her stretcher. Her body was sore all over from the shots, and the movement from the police put her in a lot of pain.

"There's a shot to the head, and a shot to the back," one of the EMS workers said.

"The head?" Stef asked.

The EMS worker turned to her.

"Yes, a shot to the head," he said.

"Wouldn't that of killed her?" she asked.

"No…" he said. He had never seen such interest in a victim from a cop.

"Do you have any relations with the victim?" the EMS worker wondered out loud.

Callie watched the EMS worker and Stef interact, but she could hardly make any sense of what was going on around her.

"She's my daughter," Stef said.

Ahh, the worker thought. Now he understood.

"I see, I'm very sorry. A shot to the head doesn't always kill someone. If the brain is still able to function, then the person doesn't die," the EMS worker said.

Stef felt a little more confident, but still fearful for her daughter's life.

From inside the classroom, which happened to be across the hallway from the room his sister was in, and down the hall from Callie, Jesus heard the scream from Callie being in pain.

He felt as though his fear was cemented, that Callie's name wasn't included in the announcement because she was shot.

He stared into space, his fears taking over his mind.

"What's wrong, why do you look like that?" Emma asked.

Jesus felt like he couldn't make words, sense, or even emotions appear from his face, mind, or mouth. He tried though, and he turned to Emma.

"I think my sister just got shot," he said.

Emma's eyes widened.

"Mariana?" she asked.

"No. Callie. They didn't say her name on the announcement, and I think that was her screaming," he said.

Emma felt like in her stomach he was probably right. When you connect the dots, you get a full image, but Emma didn't like that image.

She watched as Jesus' fears took over him, and she couldn't imagine what pain he must be in.

The police very quickly finished the sweep over the small school, and EMS began taking her to the ambulance.

"Honey, I'm going to go to Lena's office really quickly, but I'm going to go with you to the hospital," Stef said, holding Callie's hand. Callie didn't reply, she just laid there and stared at the ceiling.

Stef waited for an answer, but she didn't get one. She decided to just go ahead and make a quick trip to her wife's office.

She ran down the hallway they were adjacent too, and hurried into Lena's office. Lena jumped and screamed when she heard someone come into her office, afraid it was a shooter.

"Calm down, it's me," Stef said, seeing the total fear on her wife's face.

Lena started breathing heavy, from the heart attack Stef just gave her.

"Didn't you hear, the shooter was apprehended," she said.

"Yes, yes, I heard," Lena said.

Wait, the announcement, the one that…

"Wait, why did the officer say for the kids to come here, and why didn't he say Callie's name?" she asked, rushing to her wife.

Stef didn't answer; she just looked her wife in the eyes.

Lena looked at her wife, seeing the look in her eyes explain it all. She looked down to Stefs hands, and saw the blood on them. She knew.

"Oh God," she sighed.

"She's dead?" Lena asked.

"No, no," Stef said.

She wanted to hold her, but she knew she shouldn't get blood on her.

"She's not dead…" Stef said.

Lena felt the tiniest bit of relief, but it wasn't enough to make her feel better.

"But she's really hurt," Stef finished.

Lena's eyes became swollen with tears, and her cheeks became waterfalls.

Stefs heart broke watching the love of her life in so much pain.

"I'm going to go with her to the hospital in the ambulance. You take the kids, and bring them to the hospital," she said.

Lena nodded her head. Stef kissed her once, and left, hoping she could still make it before the ambulance left.

Lena stood their frozen. She didn't know what to do, or what to think.

Fifteen minutes passed by, and the officer's were ready to start escorting the students out. They all agreed to get the Fosters kids out first and to the vice principals office, and then escort the others.

An officer went up for each child. One opened the door to Mariana's class room, but couldn't find her there. The teacher there said that Mariana was in a Mrs. Estefan's class room, room 466. Mrs. Estefan was required to say if there were any extra children not in her regular class in her room.

The officer ran up stairs, and saw Jesus being taken out of one of the classrooms by a different officer.

"Is that room 466?" the officer ask the other.

"No, 446," he said.

The officer looked down the hallway at all the doors, and found it; room 466.

Jesus was confused. He didn't have any siblings in that room at that time.

The officer opened the class room and turned to the teacher.

"Mariana Foster," he stated.

Mariana stood up, hearing her name being called.

"I need to take you to your mother's office," the officer said.

Mariana just started walking to the front of the classroom. She didn't show any other emotion on her face than she had before. She still had tears spilling down her face, and she didn't care if she walked into anything, or if she was clumsy about it. She just walked.

"Ma'am are you okay?" the officer asked her.

Mariana didn't look at him or say anything. She just nodded her head.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

She didn't say anything or do anything. She just started walking out the classroom.

Jesus immediately ran to his twin sister and hugged her and picked her up. He was beyond happy to see that his twin sister was okay.

"Mariana, are you okay?" he asked.

She cried into his shoulder, and his happiness died when he realized just how hard she was crying.

"Mariana?" he asked, pulling back to look at his sister.

For the first time in half an hour, Mariana finally spoke.

"Talya shot Callie," she said.

Jesus' eyes widened as big as the moon, his fears were _truly _cemented now.

"What?" he asked.

"Callie pushed me into the classroom so I wouldn't get shot," she said.

She felt guilty. If she hadn't listened to her sister, she might not have gotten shot.

"Mariana…" Jesus started, but Mariana broke into more tears, and he held his sister.

The officer's escorted them down the office. Mariana never stopped crying, and Jesus never stopped holding her.

Brandon and Jude were already in there. They both were wondering why Callie's name had been mentioned on the intercom, and they both felt very worried seeing their mother. They weren't exactly sure why she seemed to be acting this way, but they knew that it must have been bad.

Everyone's nerve's shot up as the door opened.

Jesus walked in without a word, clinging on to his hysterical sister. Jesus' eyes filled with many tears, but he only released a few.

Brandon and Jude's bodies both reacted the same way.

Their hearts stopped beating.

Their veins stopped moving.

Their lungs stopped breathing.

Their eyes started crying.


	3. The Hospital

_**Hey guys! So, okay, the thing is, you guys have been asking me to update quickly and a lot, and I feel like I have been making you guys wait forever. It's only been three days! It's okay, I'm not complaining, I am SO happy you guys like it so much! Right now I am just having trouble deciding if I should stick with where I am now, or speed up to a few weeks or maybe a month, when should begin to heal and wake up, or go downhill (I ain't telling you the ending! :) ) But yeah, sorry I kept you guys waiting for THREE WHOLE DAYS?! ;) Hope you like it :)**_

* * *

Lena herded her children into hospital waiting room like they were her sheep and she was the Sheppard. They all felt a strange mix of feelings right now. A mixture of sadness, fear, and numbness.

It confused all of them how they could feel, but also feel numb. Perhaps they were numb to happiness.

Mariana had managed to cry herself out. She didn't have any of it left in her.

Jesus was still processing it in his head.

Brandon just felt numb. He still didn't know it was Talya, but being that he spoke to her right before she got shot, he felt guilty.

Jude felt angry and mad. He wanted someone to blame, but the identity of the shooter wasn't released yet.

Lena felt numb also, but she really more than anything wanted to know that Callie was okay.

They gathered around Stef who was sitting in the hospital waiting room. She wanted to be there to tell them the news the doctor had given her.

No one wanted to speak up, because they didn't know if they wanted the answer.

"How is she?" Lena finally asked.

"Well, she's not doing too well. She got shot in the back, and in the head," Stef said, wanting to hide the last part.

"She got shot in the head?!" Jude interrupted.

Stef tensed up, knowing she had to explain it all to Callie's little brother.

"Yes, but her brain is still working, and she's still alive," she assured him.

"What about brain damage?" Lena asked. After she said that, she immediately felt bad. She should have been slower and more sensitive about it.

"Well, they just took her back, so I don't know, but I wouldn't doubt that she might have brain damage," she spoke truthfully.

Everyone's heart there sank a little more.

"Anything else?" Lena asked.

Stef sighed into her chair.

"She's going to have surgery soon. She's not really saying or doing anything, but she's awake. The doctor's aren't sure what direction she's going to go in yet, but they think they she might have chance," Stef said.

'Might' have a chance. They aren't sure which 'direction' she's going to go in. These words echoed in Jude's head. They made him uncomfortable. They _doubted _whether or not she would survive.

Mariana started to shake. She felt _incredible _guilt. She _knew _that if she hadn't gone into that classroom, if she hadn't listened to her sister, she could have _saved _her. She could have not gotten shot. She didn't deserve it. Out of everyone, Callie was the last one who didn't deserve it. Mariana bent over at the waist in her chair and started to break down again. The pain and guilt was horrible.

Stef and Lena became very worried, very quickly. They both surrounded Mariana and hugged her, and Jesus, who was sitting next to her, tried to comfort her sister as well.

"Mariana, what's wrong?" Lena asked. She had never seen her daughter in this much pain.

"I shouldn't have done it," Mariana barely managed to get out. It came out very faint in between her sobs.

"You did the right thing Mariana," Jesus told her.

"Did what?" Lena asked. Her tone was urgent.

"She told me to go into the classroom. I saw Talya standing there, I shouldn't have gone in. I should have protected her," Mariana said.

There it was. Jesus' heart pumped out of his chest. She said her name. _Talya._ Brandon still didn't know, and neither did Jude. Stef also didn't know that Mariana knew who the shooter was.

Brandon felt like _he_ was the one who was shot once he heard that.

"WHAT?! You're saying _TALYA _did this?" he yelled.

Jesus immediately got up and dragged Brandon into the hall.

"Talya did this?" Brandon asked.

Lena turned and hugged Jude, while Stef focused her attention on Mariana. Her heart kept sinking and sinking when she realized that Mariana was the last person to see Callie before she got shot.

"Sweetie…" she sighed.

She kissed her weeping daughter on the head.

"You did the right thing, and so did Callie. She protected you," she started before Mariana interrupted her.

"_She's _the one who got shot. I should have helped her," Mariana cried into her mother's shoulder.

Stef began to weep as well, but she tried her best to hide it.

Outside in the hallway, Jesus was talking to Brandon.

Brandon couldn't think straight. He couldn't see straight. He couldn't even walk straight.

Jesus waited for him to calm down a bit, but it didn't help him much. Brandon was yelling obscenities and wishing death upon Talya.

"Look man, you're allowed to feel this way," Jesus started.

"You're allowed to hate Talya. I want Talya dead too, but look; our family is in there, and they are all _really _hurting. Callie got shot, and they don't know if she is going to survive. Callie's little brother is in there, man. I understand that you're mad, I am furious too. If I ever saw Talya I would beat her up," Jesus said.

"I want to hurt her worse than that," Brandon spat.

"I get that, but don't bring that hatred in there," Jesus said.

Brandon turned to his brother confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"If you take your anger from Talya out on everyone in there, you'll regret it. Mariana feels so much guilt. Stef _found _Callie. Jude is her little brother. _Don't, _and I mean _don't_, bring that in there. Don't be _that _guy. I don't care if you have to walk around the city for an hour, a week, a month, to get it all out, just _don't _bring that anger in there," Jesus said.

"How am I just supposed to pretend that I'm not mad?" Brandon asked.

"Your allowed to be mad, just don't be mad _at _them," Jesus said.

He walked up the hallway to join his family again, leaving Brandon behind to think.

Mike eventually showed up, and seeing his son down the hall, he ran to him. Brandon ran to him as well, and the two collided in a hug.

"I heard about Callie, I am _so _sorry," Mike said.

"Talya did it," Brandon cried into his dad's hug.

"What?" Mike asked.

Brandon released himself from the hug.

"Talya shot Callie," he said.

Mike knew that admiration Brandon had for Talya, and how much he loved her at one point. He could feel his heart literally break.

"I am so sorry," Mike tried to console Brandon, but Brandon couldn't handle it. He pushed his father away.

"I need to get some air," he said.

He followed his son to the lobby of the hospital, trying to get Brandon to calm down, but Brandon snapped.

"I can't _do _this!" Brandon yelled in the lobby.

"I can't handle the fact that Talya shot Callie! I _saw _Callie before she got shot. I could have _stopped _her. I could have forced Callie to talk to me, and she never would have run into Talya. I could have _stopped it!" _he yelled.

Mike had dealt with victims before, he _was _a cop. He knew that trying to calmly explain this to Brandon and sugar-coat everything wouldn't help him.

"Look, I know you're in a lot of pain, so I'm going to just give it to you straight. Talya shot Callie, because Talya was mentally unstable. Only mentally unstable people shoot other people for no real reason, and even if she had a reason, like your and Callie's relationship, still, only a mentally unstable person would have done what she did. There's no controlling someone like that. Talya was sick, and if she really wanted to hurt someone, she would have found some way to hurt someone, one way or another. All we can do now is focus on the fact that Callie is still alive, and we have to make her as comfortable and happy as we can," Mike said.

Brandon didn't want to hear _any _of this, but he knew it was true.

"I just don't want to believe that," Brandon said.

Mike shook his head.

"I know. Me neither," he said.

Brandon walked into his father's embrace and allowed himself to cry.

Upstairs, Mariana was having the same reaction as Stef tried to talk her down.

"You _did _do the right thing," Stef said for the millionth time.

"No," Mariana cried.

Stef was sick of this. She had had enough.

She pushed Mariana off her shoulder and looked her in the eyes.

"Mariana, do you know what would have happened if you stayed out there? Talya would have shot you too. She wouldn't have just shot Callie; she would have shot you too. I know that's not what you want to hear, but it's true," Stef said. She began to cry as she said the next part.

"She could have _killed _you. I would have two daughters in the hospital with gun shots, and I honestly don't think I could handle that," Stef cried.

Mariana shook her head.

"I just don't want to think that way," she said.

"Why not?" Stef pleaded.

Mariana took a deep breath, well, as deep as she could, and continued.

"Because I don't want to believe that the only way she could have saved me was by being shot," Mariana said.

Stef stroked her hair.

"I know, I don't want to believe that either. No one wants to believe, or even admit, that the only way Callie could have protected any of us was by letting her get shot, but it's what we have to say. We have to say that Callie did the right thing, because she did," Stef said. Lena joined it. She laid her hand over Mariana.

"Trust me. It is _so _much easier when you _don't _blame yourself," Lena said, referring to when Stef was shot.

Mariana tried to calm herself down and say that they were right, but it was just so hard.


	4. Waking Up

"How did she do?" Lena asked as she met her wife in the waiting area.

Stefs hands were clutched around a coffee drink. She had been here since seven in the morning, and it was now almost one in the afternoon. Callie had been taken back for her last surgery. It had been only one weekend, and Callie had already finished her surgeries. The doctors all agreed that it would be best to get them done and out of the way so that she could begin to heal completely, instead of prolonging her healing. Also, the doctors mostly agreed that after brain surgery to remove the bullet and repair any damage, it was basically up to Callie's body to decide how she would heal.

"Uh, they just got her back, but they said it's looking good," Stef said.

"Good, good…" Lena said under her breath.

Stef had one thing on her mind all day; Lena having a baby. Stef would have a hard time believing that Lena still wanted to have a baby after all this. With Callie in the hospital, it was obviously the worst time for them to be having a baby. Neither of them is ready for this, not now.

"Listen, I need to talk to you," she told Lena.

"Okay," Lena said, surprised by the sudden urgency. She hoped it had nothing to do with the surgery.

Lena walked her over to the sitting area.

The very urban-modern hospital had comforting and yet modern architecture and design. The sitting areas poked out of the building in little triangles, and the walls were windows. They took the seats opposite each other in one of the triangles.

"Listen, I need to talk to you about this baby," Stef started.

"Oh, yeah…" Lena said. She was, again, surprised that Stef wanted to talk about this.

"I know what you're going to say. Everything is called off. I can't be having a baby when I'm constantly stressed about Callie, and besides, when Callie comes home, who knows what kind of things were going to have to do to help her heal, or what kind of brain damage she might have, and I won't be able to deal with it if I'm pregnant, or if we have a baby," Lena said.

Stef widened her eyes. She was surprised. Lena took the words out of her mouth.

"Wow… yeah, I agree," Stef said. She reached over the coffee table and held her loves hand. She rubbed gentle circles with her thumb.

"Are you okay with that?" Stef asked.

Lena nodded her head.

"Absolutely, besides, if I'm stressed out about Callie, it wouldn't be healthy to the baby anyways," Lena said.

Stef nodded her head in agreement.

"I'm glad you see it that way," Stef said.

Lena smiled, but she was sad. This could be her only chance to have a baby, but she had to put that aside. Her daughter was in the hospital, shot, and near to death. It would be selfish for her to want a baby. She would have to push Callie aside for her baby.

"Want to go see how she is?" Stef asked.

"Yeah," Lena said.

The two got up and went down the hallway to the room Callie was in. She was healing from her surgery, but for the most part, she was done.

Stef and Lena slowly walked up to the bed. The site was not an easy one to take in. There were multiple upon multiple machine's attached to her. The pillow behind her head was slightly damp and bloody. She had gauze wrapped all around her head from the surgery. She had an oxygen mask on her face. The room was dark, as to help Callie relax, but she was hurt so bad, she wouldn't wake up anyways.

But wait…

There it was. Her eyes started slowly straining themselves, very slowly opening, even though they felt like bricks. Her mother's could see has her brown irises slowly emerging from them, even if only slight. They rushed to her sides, so then if she was awake, they would be the first thing she saw.

Callie was in such a bad state however, she could barely make any sense of anything. Her whole body felt numb. She didn't remember why she was there. She didn't remember _anything_. These women… who were they? Why were they staring at her like this, and why were they so close? Why was she in the hospital?

Why couldn't she remember anything?

Why couldn't she hear?

Why couldn't she do anything?

Why were these women here?

Why weren't her foster parents here?

Why did her body look and feel bigger than she remembered?

Why?

* * *

_**I know, I know, this was a really short chapter. DON'T KILL ME. This is a very short chapter, but it is very important, as it sets the stepping stones for the next chapter...**_


	5. She Remembers

Callie still wasn't sure of everything going on. She had a very hazy memory. She had never felt like this before, and she didn't know why she did. It was all just too confusing for her.

Outside, Lena and Stef talked with her doctors.

"I've honestly never seen anything like this before. I expected days, or even weeks, before Callie opened her eyes. The brain is a mysterious organ though, one we're only beginning to learn about. It seems that she's awake, but she doesn't seem to understand what's going on with her. She seems kind of hazy, and she's not talking. Hopefully, this doesn't mean she's forgotten how to talk," the doctor said.

Lena and Stef held each other's hand. They were nervously shaking on the inside, but they tried their best as mother's to not show that fear.

"Does she remember us?" Stef asked.

Lena had felt that fear too, the fear that their beloved daughter had no idea who they were.

"There's really no way to say until she comes around completely, if she does," the doctor explained.

Both of the mother's hearts sank to their stomach.

"Thank you doctor," Stef said.

He patted them both on the shoulder before walking behind the desk to sort the files of other patients. Stef and Lena turned back to face Callie's room which had a big window on the side of it, so they could see in.

Callie noticed them staring, and she lifted her eyes to meet them. She wanted to ask them so many questions, but she couldn't. She couldn't hear. Why were her ears working?! She needed to know so many answers, and it seemed like they were the only ones that knew.

Just then she had an idea.

She turned to the nurse who was helping her and use her hands. She pretended like she was drawing, trying to ask for a pen and paper.

"A pen?" the nurse asked, but Callie couldn't hear her, so tried to speak.

"Pin, payper," it came out.

"Okay," the nurse said. She smiled at Callie, but as she left the room, she knew she had figured what was wrong.

She grabbed a few blank sheets of paper and a pen from behind the desk, and tried to find the doctor.

"I think I found out what's wrong with Callie," the nurse said.

The doctor was surprised to hear this, but he paused to let the nurse continue.

"She hasn't lost her ability to speak. She's lost her hearing," the nurse said.

"Why do you say that?" the doctor asked her.

"Well, she asked for a pen and paper, but she didn't say it. She motioned herself using a pen. Even though I asked if she needed a pen, she still said that she needed a pen and paper, but she didn't say it clearly," the nurse explained.

The doctor sighed. It was unfortunate, but it would make some sense.

"Interesting. I guess I need to figure out if that's true or not," he said.

The nurse just nodded her head. She headed back into Callie's room with the pen and paper in her hand. The doctor braced himself for what he had to tell his patient's mothers. They were still turned to Callie's room, and he took a deep breath in before patting them both on the back.

"Um, it seems like I might have been wrong," the doctor started.

"What do you mean?" Lena asked.

"The nurse believes the Callie has trouble hearing. Apparently, she did talk to the nurse, but it wasn't clear, and she didn't seem to understand what the nurse said," the doctor said.

Both moms tried to swallow down their tears and the lump in their throat.

"So you're saying she's deaf?" Stef asked.

"Not sure, but I would like to bring you in, and try to figure out what she does and doesn't know and hear," he said.

Lena's eyes glazed with tears, but she knew she had to be strong. She could only imagine what kind of fear Callie was in, and she didn't want to try and make it worst. Stef was always the strong one, but now they both had to be the strong one.

They followed the doctor into the room. Callie watched them both and the nurse seemed uncomfortable. The nurse slowly turned her head to the doctor.

"She's asking about the 'accident'," she explained.

"I see, I want to try something," the doctor said.

He walked up to the side of Callie's bed. Callie watched as he slowly pulled out his phone.

"Callie, can you hear me?" he asked. He used his fingers and hands to gesture the words 'you', 'hear', and 'me'.

Callie wasn't sure what kind of sick game the universe was playing on her, but still, she slowly shook her head.

Stef and Lena felt immense disappointment. This was conformation that there was brain damage, and they couldn't hear anything.

The doctor pulled up his YouTube app and pulled up his favorite song, Jukebox Hero. The song began to play, and about 30 seconds in, he paused it.

"Did you hear that?" he asked, again, using his fingers and hands to speak.

Callie looked at him like he was an idiot. She shook her head no again.

The doctor felt disappointment too. He really hoped Callie would heal perfectly.

"May I?" he asked, gesturing to the pen and paper.

Callie handed him the paper and he began writing on it.

_What do you last remember?_

He handed the paper back to her. Callie thought hard to decide what her last memory was. She had many snippets of memory, but he first solid memory they came to mind, was watching TV with her foster parents. Jude lying right next to her, Liam on her other side, wrapped in a blanket with her foster parents sitting on the couch behind them.

_Watching a movie with my foster parents._

"She says her last memory was watching a movie with her foster parents," the doctor told Lena and Stef.

"Is that us?" she asked.

_Are these your foster parents?_

Callie looked at these two women in front of them, and she felt weird that they were there. Who in the world _were _they?

_No._

"She says she's not talking about you," the doctor explained.

"Oh God, she doesn't remember us," Lena breathed. Stef rubber her arm to try and calm her, even though she was just as scared.

_Do you remember them at all?_

_No. What happened to me?_

"She doesn't remember you, and she wants to know what happened to her," the doctor said. He paused so that he could get validation from them, like he needed to know.

"Well tell her!" Stef said.

The doctor hesitantly nodded, because he didn't want to always be the bearer of bad news. Still, he wrote down everything that happened to her.

_There was school shooting, and you were involved. You were hit at the back of your head and at your back. You have suffered from brain damage in the form of memory and hearing loss. These are your mothers who adopted you._

The doctor tried to keep is short, simple, and to-the-point.

Callie stared at the piece of paper for what felt like an eternity to everyone in the room. Callie slowly tried to process this.

This is why all her memory was foggy.

This was why she couldn't hear anything.

This was why these women were here.

This was why _she _was here.

This is why everything is happening to her. Dear God.

Her whole body started to shake. She slowly grabbed her pen, and with a shaky hand, she wrote down a few questions.

_What year is it? How old am I? Who else got shot?_

While the doctor was still reading them, Stef and Lena spoke up.

"What does it say?" Lena asked.

"She just wants some more info," he said. He spoke aloud while writing the respond down.

_It's 2013. Your sixteen years old, and you were the only one who got shot._

Callie read the response and nodded her head. She had a lot to take in, and no one expected her to know everything and understand everything.

She looked up at these women and wondered more about her new family. She needed answers.

_What about my brother? Did they adopt him? Do they have any other kids? What happened with Liam and his parents?_

She handed the questions to the doctor, and he read the out loud. He waited to see Lena and Stef respond.

Stef and Lena didn't want to be the one to tell her about Liam. Stef remembered back to when Callie told them about Liam rapping her, and she didn't want to have to reverse positions. She felt horrible hearing about what happened to Callie, and she didn't want to tell her, but she knew that she and Lena would have to be the ones who told Callie about her family, since they _were _her family.

"Give us the paper," Stef said.

The doctor handed them the paper and the pen, and Stef and Lena wrote down what they needed too, and left out anything that they didn't need too.

_Things didn't work out with Liam's parents, and they eventually sent you and your brother here. We adopted both you. You have a sister, Mariana, and two other brothers, Brandon and Jesus. We all love you and your brother very, very much, and even if you don't remember us, we remember you._

Callie held the paper in her hands as she read it. Her hands got sweaty, and she slowly tried to process everything that happened to her.

Her whole body felt like it was wearing down, and she felt like she would pass out at any moment.

There was too much for Callie to process and understand. Too much.

She got shot. She lost her hearing, and her memory of these two beautiful women in front of her that love her so very much. Her whole life has been flipped outside down, and she missed out on two years of her own life. It was 2013, and her last memory was of 2011. She didn't even know what her brother looked like now, let alone her other siblings. She didn't know what school she got shot at, why she was shot, or anything.

She didn't know _anything,_ and it made her feel like an idiot, or like she was unloveable, because she didn't love these women who loved her. She wanted too, but she didn't know them. She didn't nnow _anything_.

Still, she felt an obligation to show these women love.

_Thank you. I wish I remembered you. You seem so nice. I am so sorry, I just want to go to bed, I think im going to pass out._

She handed the paper to Lena and Stef read the paper, and they were thankful she could at least make sense of everything going on around her. Hopefully she didn't have short term memory loss.

"Let's let her get some sleep," Lena said. The doctor and the nurse agreed and left the room. Now it was just them and Callie. They both walked to her side, not really sure what to do.

_Do you want us to stay?_

Callie honestly wasn't sure if she did, considering that she didn't know them, but she they were the only people she could trust right now.

_Sure, I guess, if you're my moms._

Lena nodded and kissed Callie's hand. It could just be the only chance she had to kiss her daughter again.

Callie oddly felt comfort, but soon, he eyes fell heavy again and she fell into a deep sleep, not wanting to be disturbed. Lena and Stef felt relieved that she had finally fallen back asleep. The doctor had even said that it was strange for Callie to already be so alert. They just wanted Callie to relax and rest.

_**3:00 AM That Night**_

There was not a single sound. Everything was quiet, even though there was much movement. So much struggle.

Callie kicked and she could feel herself scream, she just couldn't hear it.

Liam pressed her stuffed animal into her mouth to block her screaming, even though she couldn't hear it.

She felt Liam's nails dig into her as ripped her pants off of her. She felt embarrassed, exposed, and violated. The cold air hit her genitals, and squirmed, trying to break herself free.

She watched as Liam slowly unbuckled his pants and pulled them down, showing his erection.

"_No!" _she finally heard herself say.

"_No, don't do this! Why are you doing this?"_

Liam yanked her shirt up along with her bra, exposing her breasts to him.

"_NO!"_ she screamed, as he forced himself into her. She wasn't sure how long it was until she turned her head, and saw her precious baby brother, standing at the doorway, watching as she was assaulted.

Just then Callie sprung up, making Lena, who had been failing to fall asleep, jump up. Callie felt numb throughout her whole entire body, followed by a tingle, the same one you get when your fight-or-flight instinct kicks in.

Stef was awoken by the commotion.

Callie felt her soul die a little.

_She remembered._

She remembered Liam, and why she had to leave.

_He raped her, and Jude saw it._

She began to weep. She never thought that she would be one of those girl.

Stef and Lena tried calling out to her, but they remembered that she couldn't hear them. Stef sat behind Callie and began to stroke her hair, trying to calm her down from whatever was happening to her.

"What's going on?" Lena asked.

"I don't know, maybe she had a flash back. Maybe she remembers getting shot," she suggested.

Lena pulled out the paper that they had used earlier and scribbled down on it:

_What's wrong?_

Callie could barely keep herself together long enough to write out her answer. In between sobs, she wrote big letters in horrible handwriting, but she didn't care. She just didn't care.

_He raped me._

She barely could read it herself, but Stef, who watched as she wrote it down, knew what it said.

She thought she would have more time. More time to tell Callie about Liam. It was too late for that now.

Stef sighed and Lena looked at both of them, still now knowing what was going on.

"She remembers what Liam did to her," Stef explained.

"Oh God," Lena said almost immediately. She closed her eyes to hide any tears she might have had in her eyes. Stef rubbed her mouth for a minute, but went back to comforting her sobbing daughter, who had just relived one of her most traumatic experiences.

"Shh, baby, it's okay."


	6. Mariana

_**Hey guys, I am so sorry I haven't update in over a week. I just got super busy with school work and piano work, and then I got sick (I still am :() But anyways, here is the new chapter!**_

* * *

Lena sighed as she worked her way into the hospital room. She had a new big bag of stuff, since she already went through her first set of clothes from being her in the hospital. It had been a week since Callie had the nightmare, or rather the memory, of being raped by Liam. No one was really sure how Callie would be dealing with it, but Callie tried to push it aside. It looked like she felt strong when Stef told her that it had happened over two years ago.

Callie did try to shake it off, but it just wasn't easy for her to let it go.

She dropped her stuff on the chair beside Callie's bed. Callie watched her. One thing Callie knew about Lena, was that she was beautiful. She loved how gorgeous Lena looked, and it just seemed for effortless.

Lena looked back at Callie, and tried to swallow the lump in her throat from seeing her daughter so injured and hurt still. The medicine the doctors gave her helped her pain, but she still hurt inside.

Lena picked up the notebook they bought just for Callie and wrote something in it.

_Would you like to meet the rest of your family? If it's too soon, that's okay. They have just really wanted to see you._

She handed the notebook back over to Callie and waited for her reply.

Callie was caught off guard the Lena so easily asked her if she wanted to meet the rest of her family, whom she didn't know. Nonetheless, Callie had been waiting to meet them… she just didn't know it would be so soon.

_Yes. I would like that._

Lena smiled at her reply, and leaned in to give her daughter and hug. She pulled away, and sighed 'I love you' to her daughter.

Since the doctors guessed that the hearing loss was permanent, a specialist has been coming in to teach Callie sign language, and Lena and Stef were learning sign language online and in books. None of them knew much, barely enough to talk to each other, but it was a start.

Callie smiled shyly and signed 'thank you'. She felt awkward whenever her mothers told her they loved her. She wanted to say it back, but it wouldn't be true. She didn't love them… she just didn't know them.

Lena sat back into her chair, pleased that Callie agreed to meet her siblings.

She felt so weird thinking that… Callie was going to _meet _her _brothers and sisters._

She pulled out her phone and texted Stef.

_Lena: Callie said she's okay with meeting her siblings._

Stef, who was out grocery shopping for her kids at home, nearly dropped her box of rice when she read the text.

Jesus, who was there helping his mother shop, noticed her shock.

"Mom, you okay?" he asked.

Stefs mind flickered back and forth from Jesus and her phone, and she tried to process what this meant.

"Is it Callie?" he asked.

Hearing the urgency in her sons' voice, she pulled herself back into reality.

"Uh, yeah…. Yeah, Lena says that Callie wants to meet you guys," Stef said.

Jesus was confused by her word choice. _Meet?_

"She wants to _meet _us?" Jesus asked.

Stef wanted to face palm herself, realizing she never told her other children the extent of Callie's brain damage.

"She doesn't remember us?" Jesus asked.

Stef sighed, disappointed in herself.

"Callie has severe brain damage. She doesn't remember any of us, and she can't hear," Stef confessed to her son.

Jesus shook his head in disbelief that his mom hadn't told him that.

"She's deaf?" he asked.

"Yes. They think that she may gain her memory back, but she won't get her hearing back," Stef said.

Jesus slumped into the shelves, shocked. His sister is deaf. His sister doesn't even know she's his sister.

"I'm so sorry we didn't tell you sooner," Stef said, rubbing her sons' arm.

Jesus just continued shaking his head.

"I just can't believe this," he said.

Stef looked at her almost empty cart of groceries, and decided that she would take the kids out to eat instead.

"Come on, let's check out and go home," Stef suggested.

Jesus pierced his eyebrows together as he studied the cart.

"There is hardly anything in this cart," Jesus said.

Stef tried to lighten things up.

"Hey, I'm the adult in this situation, and I say were ready to go! Why don't we just go home and… tell everyone the good news?" Stef said.

Jesus scoffed.

"What's so good about brain damage and deafness?" Jesus asked.

"No, I mean that Callie wants to meet you guys. She doesn't remember us, but she's starting to get some of her memory back already, and she isn't pushing us back, and now she wants to meet you guys again. That's a good sign," Stef pointed out.

Jesus agreed, but he was still pretty disappointed with this news.

They checked out and hurried home to tell Mariana and Jude.

As they came through the door with only two bags, they ran into Mariana listening to her iPod. She pulled her ear buds out as she studied her mom and brother.

"Why are you guys' home already? Weren't you grocery shopping?" Mariana asked.

"Yes, but we have news about Callie so we came home. Can you please get your little brother and gather in the kitchen?" she asked.

Mariana was taken aback by her mother's urgency. She wondered why she was so quick to tell.

"Is she okay?" Marian asked.

"Yeah sweetie, she's fine, but there are just a couple things we need to tell you and Jude about," Stef said.

Mariana nodded her head.

"Okay," she said, and quickly ran upstairs to get her brother as Stef and Jesus headed into the kitchen.

They waited as Mariana got Jude and brought him into the kitchen. Jesus was still taking in the news, and Stefs heart was beating a little harder and faster and her breathing was getting shallower as she prepared to tell her two kids about Callies condition.

Mariana and Jude waited silently for Stef to begin talking.

"Callie has had some brain damage done," she began.

She looked over at Jude, wondering how he might take this news.

"She has lost some memory and she is deaf," she said very slowly.

"She's deaf?"Jude asked. His nerves began to sky rocket and his stomach dropped to the floor.

Stef took a shaky breath.

"Yes, sweetie, she is deaf," she said.

Both Mariana and Jude felt pierced. They both couldn't decide what was piercing them though. Hearing that Callie was deaf was certainly better than hearing that Callie was dying. However, they both felt guilty knowing that was their standard; as long as she isn't dying, she is okay. They knew that Callie must be scared, and she probably wouldn't see it that way. Callie probably wouldn't think she was okay as long as she wasn't dead. However, deafness is not all that Stef mentioned, and curiosity peaked in Mariana's mind.

"You said she has memory loss?" Mariana asked.

Stef nodded her head.

"Yes. She doesn't remember coming to live with us, or getting adopted. Apparently the last house she remembered living in is…" Stef hesitated to say the name, because she knew how Jude would feel about it.

"Liam's family," Stef said.

Jude felt angered as he dug his fingernails into the table. _Liam, _she only remembers _Liam?!_

"What do you mean?" Jude asked.

Since everyone in the family knew about Callie and Liam, Stef didn't feel hesitant to tell them the truth.

"I think, though I don't know, the last thing Callie remembers is being…" Stef was careful with her words again, as she was afraid to use such hard words.

"Hurt by Liam," Stef finished.

Jesus scoffed. He wished his sister never had to remember something like that.

Mariana shook her head. Why Liam?

"How come that's what she last remembers?" Mariana asked.

This was something that Stef and Lena had talked about a lot. They honestly wanted to know why she remembered someone as horrible as Liam, and not them. Stef shrugged.

"I don't know. That was something very traumatic for Callie, and now because she lost her memory and is regaining it, she's had to relive it. If it's the last thing that she remembers, and then it's like it just happened," Stef pointed out.

Jesus began to understand what this meant, while his siblings were still confused.

"So, she basically feels like she just got raped?" Jesus asked. He wasn't shy with his words, like Stef was.

Stef felt worried that that word was being used in front of Jude, but she nodded.

"Basically, yes," Stef said.

They all waited to see Jude's reaction, since he was the only one who would know what Callie was like at that time. Stef hoped that from Jude, she could take away things that would help her deal with Callie.

They watched as Jude shuck is head and a tear fell down his cheek.

"That's so horrible… that's cruel," Jude said.

Stef walked over to her young son and hugged him, letting him cry into her arm.

"Why did this have to happen to her?" he cried.

Mariana and Jesus began to feel tears creep down their cheeks, because inside, they asked the same thing. Jesus walked around the table to hug his sister. Ever since Callie got shot, he felt a brotherly instinct to protect her, but since he couldn't protect Callie, he tried his hardest to protect his other siblings – from their fellow students who asked never ending questions, from the press that didn't care how incredibly rude and hurtful their questions were, from everyone.

Stef took a break from comforting Jude to turn to Mariana and Jesus.

"Mariana," she called out.

Mariana separated from her brother so that she could look at her mother.

"Callie said she wants to meet you and Jesus and Brandon. Would you want to do that?" Stef asked.

Mariana pondered for a moment. She would have to meet Callie again, even though she was never separated from her. She'd have to rebuild that sister connection that they had. That was something that she dreaded. She didn't want to rebuild a relationship with Callie, because the one they had before was so perfect. Of course, though, whatever the reason, Mariana had to rebuild her relationship with Callie. It's the only way she'd really get her sister back.

Mariana nodded, and Jesus felt relieved that he wouldn't be the only one to go see Callie.

_**That Night**_

Just like Lena herded her kids into the hospital waiting room the day Callie got shot, Stef herded her kids into the hospital hallway, just outside her room. They stopped when they reached the window from Callie's room.

Brandon, Mariana, Jude, and Jesus all stopped to look in on their sister. She had a bandage wrapped around her head, and she had a lot of machine's hook up to her. They all wondered how they would talk to Callie, since she couldn't hear.

Callie took in the sight of her new family. She obviously immediately picked out Jude, but the other's three, she didn't recognize. She had heard about the others but when they all stood together… it just seemed like a lot of people. A lot of new faces she had to learn about. Even though she didn't know the others, she waited anxiously for her little brother.

Lena hurried out into the hallway before any of them came into her room. She hugged her wife and her children. She hadn't gotten to see her kids yet, and she felt happy to finally see some familiar faces, besides Stef and Callie.

"How is she?" Brandon asked immediately. He was nervous to see how his sister was.

"She's doing okay, besides the memory loss and the hearing loss," Lena said.

"Is she in any pain?" Jesus asked.

Lena never really thought about that. She wasn't sure what to tell her son.

"Um, their giving her medicine to help, but I'm sure that if she wasn't given any medicine, she'd be in a lot of pain," Lena said.

"Can we just go in now?" Jude asked. He really just wanted to see his sister, and he wanted to tell her about their new life, and he wanted to know how she felt about this new family… he wanted to know everything, but more than anything, he wanted to see his sister.

Lena was surprised by Jude's sudden burst, but she nodded her head and began to lead her children into Callie's room, when she stopped for a moment.

"There's a bandage wrapped around her head that's from surgery. It isn't anything too scary, you can't see where they did the surgery, but the back of her head near her neck is bald, and it bleeds a little sometimes, so you might see a little bit of blood on her bandage or on her pillow. If you do, you need to tell me and Stef, it just means that we need change her bandage and her pillow sheet," Lena said.

Hearing that, they all felt that piercing sensation they couldn't quite put a name too. It felt a little gross, but mostly real, to hear their mom say that. It was like, finalizing that Callie was shot in the brain.

Callie sat in her bed and watched as one by one, the Fosters started to fill the room. First there was the Lena, then the curly haired kid, then the other boy in a orange shirt, then a pretty girl who was probably no older then she was, then Stef came in, and then, finally, a familiar face… her brother.

She began to weep as she saw her brother, the first person she actually remembered. He was so much bigger now and so handsome too. She outstretched her arms to her little brother, and her brother happily ran into them. She felt so relieved to finally see someone she knew.

The Foster siblings all smiled as they saw the happiness in Jude and Callie, and cried little tears of joy, but they all felt secretly a little disappointed. They all knew that Callie wouldn't feel the same about them.

After what felt like hours of hugging and crying, Callie and Jude broke apart as she turned her attention to her family. Lena took that as a cue to begin introducing her to her siblings.

"Callie, this is Brandon," Lena said out loud. She pointed to Brandon as she finger spelled B-R-A-N-D-O-N with her other hand. Callie nodded, and Lena pointed to Jesus.

"This is Jesus," she said while she spelled J-E-S-U-S.

Callie watched as Lena then pointed to the young girl and spelled with her fingers M-A-R-I-A-N-A. It felt weird to Callie, having another girl. She actually had a sister now!

She used her little bit of sign language to sign sister.

Lena and Stef nodded. They both signed 'yes', and the pointed to Mariana, then to her, and then signed sister.

Mariana watched and listened to her mothers.

"What's the sign for sister?" she asked.

"Oh, well, you tape the bottom of your head with your thumb and your fingers out, and you put your other hand down with the thumb and finger out, and then you bring your hand together like this," she showed Mariana.

Mariana practiced a couple of time, and Lena and Stef nodded, telling her she was doing it right. Mariana smiled as she turned around to face Callie. She pointed at herself, then at Callie, and signed sister.

"I'm your sister," she said.

Callie grinned, happy to see that her sister was so happy to learn a little bit of sign language to talk to her. She felt herself giggled, but she didn't hear it.

"What's the sign for brother?" Jude asked.

Lena then did the same thing, only this time, she tapped the top of her head before bringing her hands together. Jude then also practiced a couple times, but he didn't need to introduce himself.

Jesus and Brandon also practiced brother, and once he felt confident enough, Jesus tested his new skills to introduce himself and Brandon.

"Me and Brandon are your brothers," he said, pointing to himself, then to Brandon, and signed brother. Brandon was still practicing both signs, trying it over and over again until he was sure he had it memorized, similar to what he did when memorizing a piano piece.

"Isn't there a variation for brother and sister if there is more than one?" Lena asked. She could have sworn she read something about it on that website.

"I think so, but I don't know what it is," Stef shrugged.

Callie looked at the teenagers, and wondered something else. Stef watched Callie's fingers as she slowly spelled O-L-D.

"Old?" Stef asked. What did she mean old? Was she trying to say they were old?

"Oh, how old!" Lena said, excited she understood. She walked over to Brandon and stuck up one finger, then stuck up six, slowly saying "sixteen." Then she signed that Mariana and Jude were both fifteen.

Callie nodded and looked to her younger brother, and pointed to him. Jude stuck up on finger on one hand, and two on the other.

Callie felt a pinge of sadness when she understood what Jude signed. He was _twelve._ She last remembered him being ten. He grew up so much, and she missed it all, even though she was there. Still, she tried to hide it, and tried to see happy so she wouldn't upset everyone.

She signed something that Jude didn't understand, so Stef translated it for him.

"She said, 'Wow, 12, really?'" Stef said, trying to sound as enthusiastic as Callie looked when she signed it.

Jude nodded his head.

"Really," he said, realizing this was all new to her, all of it. He hadn't really realized till then just how serious this was.

Callie turned to look at her siblings, and her eyes rested on Mariana. Just then, at that very moment, looking at Mariana, Callie started to… have flashbacks?

_She was wearing a hot pink dress all the way down the floor and Mariana was wearing a light pink ball gown. Her first reaction was that it was Mariana's sweet sixteen, but she remembered she was only 15. She was Latina, but her family wasn't. Perhaps they threw her a quinceanera anyways? And, she was there?_

_Walking into the front doors of house, Mariana in a jean jacket and blue shirt with a tote bag, and her in her beat up camo tank top and jacket. Was that… her house?_

_Eating at the dinner table, Brandon was grabbing a plate and forks, Jesus and Mariana at the table staring at her, Lena and Stef peering at her at the end of the table, Stef still in her police uniform._

_Back in her bright pink dress, walking the runway with some guy, at that party again…._

_Watching Brandon, Jesus, and Mariana get ready for school, Lena and Stef get ready for work, and she was just in her t-shirt and sweatpants. Why wasn't she getting ready?_

_Mariana sitting on her bed, showing her the pictures she took on her phone._

_Both Mariana and her standing against the lockers, chatting, before walking down the hall way and…_

_Bam._

Callie's mouth dropped open as the scene played out in her head. Everyone watched her as she began to hyperventilate.

This was it, the moment that made her like this. She remembered…

She kept her eyes locked on Mariana, since she was frozen in space, and Mariana began to silently freak out in her own body, not knowing what was happening to her sister.

"What's happening to her?" Jude asked.

Stef only remembered seeing Callie like this when she woke up from that dream about Liam.

"I think she's having a flashback," Stef said. She flung herself onto Callie's bed and sat right in front of her, and began to stroke her hair. She told her slowly so that Callie could read her lips "your okay".

Callie took a deep breath, actually being able to understand what Stef had just said, but she started to weep again, as the memory continue to play in her head of her getting shot.

Lena grabbed her children and started to move them out of the room. She didn't want them to be scared by how loud Callie was as she cried. She couldn't hear herself cry, so she didn't realize how loud she was.

Stef said in the room with Callie, stroking her hair as Callie cried into her side.


	7. Party?

"Doctor, are you absolutely sure this is the right thing to do? She's only been in here for a week and now you want to come home?" Lena asked. She utterly and truly shocker by what the doctor had to say. He thought that Callie was ready to come home, but Lena was hesitant about it, and Stef just thought it was crazy.

"There's nothing else that we can do for her here. She has done all the tests she needs to do and she's healed as much as she needs to go home. She isn't paralyzed from the shot in her back and it is beginning to heal. Keep learning sign language and help her around the house and bring her here three times a week for physical rehabilitation and she will be fine," the doctor said.

"You're telling me that a girl who was shot in the brain a week ago is ready to be reintroduced to normal life?" Stef asked. She thought the doctor was an idiot for saying that Callie was healed enough.

The doctor held his hand up and shook his head.

"I'm not saying 'make her do all the things she used to do'. I'm saying you can take her home. Let her rest, she is going to need a lot of it. She still needs to heal, but she can do it at home," the doctor said.

Lena and Stef looked in at their daughter's room. Callie sat propped up on her bed, watching the doctor talk to her moms. The two mothers were very hesitant about bringing their wounded daughter back home so early, but they couldn't force Callie into the hospital any longer than the doctor would allow.

"You have to understand that you're not bringing back the same Callie you used to know. This is not Callie from a week ago; this is Callie from two years ago. She may not ever be the same girl. Callie has gone through something traumatic, and she doesn't remember much. This is a very hard time for her, and the sooner you can get her back home and get her to feel like she belongs to your family, the better," the doctor explained.

Lena and Stef were still completely against the idea of bringing Callie home, but they agreed with what the doctor had to say about getting her used to her family again.

They watched as the doctor wrote something on a script of paper and tore off from the pad, handing it to them.

"This is the medication we have been giving her. Give it to her twice a day, three times if she needs it," he said.

Stef angrily took the slip of paper from the doctor's hand. He was practically ignoring her! He handed them a couple more sheets of paper.

"This is the information on the physical therapy and sign language sessions will need to attend. It would be most beneficial if you guys could both be there, and the nurse will be in soon to help discharge Callie," the doctor said. He then walked off, leaving Lena and Stef mad that he just ignored their worries.

"So I guess she's coming home," Lena said angrily with a fake smile on her face.

Stef just shook her head.

"I guess she is," she said, watching as the nurse wrote on the piece of paper Callie gave her, probably writing down that she was going to be released.

Lena sighed when she realized what a stressful week she would have ahead of her. She hadn't told Stef everything that was going on this week, so she decided now would be as good a time as any.

"You know, there starting school back up on Monday," Lena said.

Stef whipped her head around upon hearing the news. Has the world gone mad?! Why wasn't anyone taking the time to relax or heal or anything?!

"You're kidding," Stef sighed, leaning back and rubbing her temples.

Lena felt the same way the Stef did. She couldn't believe all it took was a little over a week for the school to open back up after her daughter was shot.

"I know. They want me to come back to work too," she said.

Stef was even _more _surprised to hear that. This world really was mad. They wanted her to work while her daughter was at home healing from a shooting?!

"You're kidding me, how could they do that?!" Stef asked.

Lena nodded her head.

"I know. I told them, 'how could you even ask me something like that? My daughter just got shot and is in the hospital, and you want me to return to the school she got shot in.'"

Stef shook her head. One thing she really hated about Lena's job was her co-workers who always said they were doing what's best for everyone, when they really only did what was best for them.

"Technically on Monday she'll be home, but neither of us can just go to work on Monday. We both need to take a couple a weeks off so we can take care of Callie," Stef said.

Lena continued nodding her head, completely agreeing to what Stef said.

"I agree. I will call them and let them know that I will _definitely _not being come in to work on Monday, and you call your boss and say you're not going to work either," Lena said before walking off, dialing her bosses number.

Stef stood there, confused as to what just happened.

"Wait, right now?" she asked.

She looked over to Callie who looked upset for some reason, which wasn't a surprise, as she had many reasons to be upset.

"I guess now's a good a time as any," Stef said under her breath to herself. She walked in the opposite direction Lena had walked and began dialing her boss.

She told her boss that she wasn't sure how long she would need off, and her boss luckily very understood, and told her that she can come in whenever she is ready, though she will not be paid after a few weeks.

Next, Stef dialed Marianas number.

Mariana quickly answered the phone like her mother's told her to do if they were at the hospital.

"Hey mom," Mariana said very casually as she continued to read her book.

"Listen sweetie, I need you to clean up your room and clear Callie's side of the room up," Stef said quickly.

Mariana was surprised to hear such a request. Why did she need to clean up her room?

"Why?" Mariana asked.

Stef sighed. She still totally disagreed with the doctor, but there was nothing she could do now.

"We just talked to the doctor. Callie's coming home," Stef said.

To Mariana, that was like music in her ears. Her sister was coming _home,_ and she could see her every day, and it must be a good thing if the doctor said she could come home!

"Okay!" Mariana said happily into the phone.

"And, uh, I need you to tell your brothers as well, including Brandon. We need to get our stuff together and help with Callie," Stef said.

"Got it, no problem, love you mom!" Mariana said happily as she closed her phone.

She ran into the hallway and pounded on the door, just in case Jesus was on his computer.

"Guys, come out here, I've got good news, and it's about Callie!" she said.

Both her brothers jumped to their feet rather quickly, and rushed outside to hear the good news about Callie.

"What's the good news?" Jude asked. Jude was waiting a long time to hear some good news about Callie.

Mariana smiled big, she couldn't hide that she was just so happy!

"She's coming home!" Mariana said sweetly.

Jesus was taken aback. It seemed awfully soon for his sister to be coming home.

"Are you sure? It's only been a week," Jesus said.

Mariana shrugged. She didn't really think about how long it's been, since it's felt like decades.

"That's what mom said. She also said to clean up my room and make the place nice for Callie, so do you guys maybe want to help me with that?" Mariana said, trying to coax the boys to help her with her chore.

Normally they would have rolled their eyes and given her a 'yeah right', but after hearing such good news, they could care less.

"Sure, I'll clean the kitchen and living room, Mariana you get the bedroom and bathroom, and Jude, you get the dining room and family room," he said.

Jude smiled and nodded his head. He would clean every house in America if it meant he would see his sister again.

"Sounds like a plan," Mariana smiled as she skipped back into her room and began cleaning _everything_.

Jude headed down stairs and actually began in the foyer, taking everyone's shoes and helmets and stuff to their rooms.

Jesus turned the radio on downstairs loud enough so everyone could hear it, and began dancing as he started cleaning the dishes.

They all worked very quickly; deeply motivated with the fact that Callie was soon to be home again. They worked so quickly that by the time they finished, it had only taken them two hours.

Mariana came downstairs with handfuls of trash, and Jude walked out of the now clean dining room. Jesus was picking up the last bits of video game electronics and putting them into their bins.

"You guys done?" Jesus asked.

"Yeah, the bedrooms are all clean, and so is the bathroom," Mariana said.

Jesus stopped what he was doing and looked at his sister. Did she just say they were _all _clean?

"Mariana, I told you to just clean your bedroom," Jesus said.

Mariana shrugged the trash bags still in her hands.

"Yeah, but when I finished cleaning, you guys were still cleaning, and I thought that moms would like their room clean since they've been at the hospital all week, and then I just started cleaning your room," Mariana said.

Jude chuckled.

"You cleaned my bedroom? Thanks," he said.

Mariana rolled her eyes. She didn't clean the boy's room for any particular reason, she just though it looked out of place since all the other rooms would be clean and organized and their room was just…. Wrong.

"Don't take it to personally," she said to her little brother. He just smiled.

"Alright, well take the trash out, and see if you can get a hold of moms and see when they'll be home," he said, finishing his work.

Mariana nodded and headed outside to put the trash in the bins.

"Do you know where moms keep the recipes?" Jesus asked Jude, getting a sudden idea in his head.

Jude shrugged, not even knowing that there his moms kept a recipes.

Jesus thought about where they might be. He walked into the kitchen, and luckily he immediately found them sitting on the cabinet near his head.

"Here it is," he said, grabbing the little blue box.

He pulled all the recipes out, looking for one recipe in particular.

"What are you looking for?" Jude asked.

"You know those sticky wings that Callie likes?" Jesus asked his younger brother.

Jude smiled. He knew exactly what wings he was talking about. When Callie and Jude were little, their mom, their birth mom that is, would make them sticky wings. They had all kinds of spices in them, but the glaze was mostly brown sugar. They were super sweet, and they would eat them all the time. When they moved into the Fosters, Jude told Lena about the wings, and Lena was able to find a recipe online, the same ones their mom used to make.

"The sticky garlic wings," Jude said.

"Garlic wings!" Jesus said. Now he knew what to look for in the recipe cards.

He kept flipping through the cards, and Mariana came in a little quicker than expected.

"Mom said that they will be home in an hour. It's taking so long because all these specialist have to come in and decide if they think Callie is ready to go home, and their checking all kinds of stuff like her hearing, her eyesight, if she's able to walk, but they should be home soon," Mariana said, sitting herself on the table next to her twin.

Jesus tried to think back to the wings recipe and wondered if they would be ready in time. He thought of the few times Lena made them, and remembered her once telling them that they would be ready in an hour, so they must take about an hour?

"Do you know how long those wings take?" Jesus asked Jude.

Jude tried to picture the recipe card in his mind. He was made them himself one night when he was really hungry. He tried to remember the time they took.

"45 minutes, I think," Jude said.

"Okay, that should be just enough time, but Callie may have to wait a little bit," Jesus said.

As Mariana had only just come in, she didn't know of Jesus plan.

"What are you talking about?" Mariana asked.

Jesus smiled, thinking about how nice it would be to make Callie some nice food she would actually remember liking.

"We're going to make her those sticky wings her and Jude used to eat when they were kids," he said.

Mariana got excited at the idea as well. She also _loved _those sticky wings, but her mom hardly ever made them anymore.

"Yum! That's such a sweet idea Jesus," Mariana smiled, shoving him.

He blushed slightly, but ignored his own cheekiness as he continued to look for the recipe. Mariana then also had a good idea that could contribute to Jesus idea.

"I should go to the store and buy those little cupcakes she likes!" Mariana said.

Jesus and Jude looked at her like she was an idiot. Those cupcakes she likes? Has there ever been a cupcake Callie didn't like? Has there ever been a cupcake _anyone _didn't like?

"Which ones are those?" Jesus finally asked, since she wasn't getting the hint about how generic she was being.

"The ones with the vanilla crème filling and the _suuuper _rich vanilla bean frosting," Mariana described. She was just now realizing how she and Callie both had the same favorite food.

"She doesn't remember them," Jude reminded her.

"Yes, but she will love them nonetheless," Mariana added.

Jude had to shrug at that. That was true; it wasn't like she also lost her sense of taste or her tongue.

"You better get going if you want to be here in time," Jesus said.

Mariana nodded and hopped of the table. She headed upstairs to get her shoes. She happily thought of the Fosters family together again at the dinner table, enjoying a good meal, her moms, Callie, Jude, her brother, Brandon.

Oh crap.

_Brandon!_ She had forgotten to tell Brandon!

She was already downstairs with her bag, so her brother heard her when she let out an "Oh, crap!"

"What's wrong?" Jesus asked from inside the kitchen, though he wasn't really sure if we wanted to hear about his sister's drama.

"I forgot to tell Brandon!" she yelled.

Jesus rolled his eyes. _Of course _Mariana would forget to tell Brandon. That's just the kind of girl she is.

Well, that's Mariana for you.

"Well you better call him," he said.

"I am!" Mariana said frustrated as she pulled her cell phone out of her tote bag. She dialed Brandon's cell phone and waited.

Brandon took a break from piano practice to answer the phone for his sister.

"Hey Mariana, what's up?" he asked.

Mariana felt all happy again, telling Brandon the good news!

"Brandon, you need to come home tonight, Callie's coming home!" she said.

Brandon felt ecstatic hearing that news. It must have meant that Callie was okay! His sister would be okay!

"What? You're kidding, that's great news!" Brandon said, practically jumping out of his piano bench.

"Yeah, Jesus and I are planning a surprise dinner for her, and I was about to go pick up the cupcakes," Mariana said.

Just then, she got another classic, sneaky, Mariana idea to get someone else to do her chore.

"Unless, you want to get them, since Callie will be home in an hour and it might take me over an hour to get them if I walk, but you can drive," Mariana suggested.

Brandon didn't even realize Mariana was trying to get out of her own work, because he was still on the moon.

"Yeah, of course I can get them. I mean, I have to cancel my plans with my dad, but I'm sure he'll understand," Brandon said.

Mike walked into the kitchen right when Brandon said that, curious as to why his son was so happy to break his plans with him.

"Thank you, thank you, and thank you! Make sure you get the right ones," Mariana said.

"Which ones are those?" Brandon asked. Didn't she mean just any old cupcakes?

"The ones with the vanilla crème filling and the vanilla bean frosting," she said.

Brandon faintly remembered them. He didn't really like them, but he only had one of them. He decided he would get those and then some normal cupcakes.

"Got it, anything else?" Brandon asked.

"No, that's it!" Mariana said bubbly into the phone.

Brandon just smiled, even though Mariana couldn't see it in his apartment.

"You said an hour, right?" Brandon asked.

"Yep, one hour," Mariana confirmed.

"Alright, I'll be there soon," he said. He pressed the end call button and was about to do his secret happy dance, but when he whipped around the begin, he saw his father in the kitchen.

"Whoa, look at you, why are you so excited to cancel your plans with your old man? I thought we had a night full of chicken wings and MMA ahead of us," Mike said.

"Callies coming home!" Brandon said with a smile on his face, almost like a child.

Mike smiled, but was a little worried about his son's reaction. He was _really _happy that Callie was coming home.

"Wow, that's great! Isn't it a little early though, I mean it's only been a week," he said.

Brandon hardly even heard his dad as he gathered his coat and keys. He was super excited to get home and see Callie and his moms. He hadn't seen them in a long time, it felt like.

Mike didn't see his son's actions as cute. He was annoyed, as Brandon continued to get ready to leave without answering.

"Brandon! Hey!" he said, getting his sons attention. Brandon stopped and faced his dad.

Mike chuckled, which was something he did whenever he was nervous.

"Hey, uh, I know you're really excited about this, but just take a minute," Mike said.

"No, I don't have a minute, I got to be there in an hour with cupcakes," Brandon said. He gestured to the door and began to take a step back to leave, but Mike held a hand up to him.

"No bud, I mean take a minute to breath. This is a happy moment, but this means Callie is going to start going down this long road of getting used to a new life. She doesn't remember you, you might freak her out if you're suddenly all over her," Mike explained.

Brandon had put a lot of thought into this subject. He realized that not only could Callie never have the same feeling as he did, but he she also never did, at least she doesn't remember it. Still he was surprised at his father's choice of words. Did he really think he loved Callie enough to be 'all over her'?

"Dad, I know. I still love Callie, but, she's not Callie anymore. At least, not the Callie I know. She doesn't even know who I am. She just met me a couple days ago. I guess I just… love the memory of Callie," Brandon said.

Mike nodded his head. He didn't want to sound so surprised that his son grew up so much, but he was. The way is son had been acting lately; he couldn't help but worry slightly that his son would be too intense for Callie. He just hoped everything his son said would hold true.

"Well I'm happy you understand. You should try and be her brother, not her boyfriend," Mike said.

Brandon smiled and nodded. He knew that this would be hard for him, since he loved Callie so much, but it would be useless to try and get Callie to be in love with him.

"I will," he said.


	8. Stef

Brandon carefully sat the boxes of cupcakes on the kitchen table. Mariana stood next to him, making sure the boxes wouldn't fall. Brandon mentally shook his head, wondering why the cupcakes were so huge, and why there was only four in one box.

"Callie is going to love this," Jesus said excitedly. He and Jude had worked for the past hour to get the wings done. They had just finished, and they were sitting out in there pan. Mariana had made some freshly squeezed lemonade, and now they had their cupcakes.

Jude scanned the kitchen, wondering if there was anything else they should add or if they were missing anything.

"Do you think we should add anything? We just have wings," Jude pointed out.

Jesus had seen this problem earlier, but he was so busy with cooking and waiting around for Callie that he forgot about it. He looked around, trying to get ideas about what to add as a side dish, and he remembered that his moms had some left over mashed sweet potatoes.

He pulled them out of the fridge, and tried to guess if they would be big enough for all of them.

"Do you think this enough?" Jesus asked his sister.

Mariana nodded her head.

"Yeah, just heat them up in the microwave. Oh, you should add some marshmallows to them, Callie loves those!" Mariana smiled.

Brandon rolled his eyes. They were making dinner for a Callie who didn't exist anymore. Yes, Callie did like sticky wings and cupcakes and sweet potatoes, but that was before she got shot.

"Guys, she doesn't remember any of this food," Brandon said.

"We know, but it's not like she suddenly hates those cupcakes or sweet potatoes with marshmallows. She'll love them, and technically, she does remember the sticky wings," Mariana pointed out.

Brandon never heard the story of the wings, so he was naturally confused.

"She does?" he asked.

"Our mom used to make them when we were younger," Jude said.

Ah, Brandon though. At least there was something that Callie would find familiar.

Brandon nodded to show he understood. There was silence now, only the microwave to make noise. Jude felt sick to his stomach out of nerves. He was worried about what life with Callie would be like now. It was like his sister was a new person now. He wondered if she'd be in bed most of the time, or if she'd quickly heal. Would she like her new family, or will she want out? He would also have to learn sign language, and that task of learning a new language, especially a physical one, was intimidating. All the Fosters kids stayed up all night learning as much sign language as they could, probably even more then Callie knew, but the challenge was forming a sentence. The grammar rules for sign language were different, and it was confusing to all of them.

Everyone's ear picked up when they heard the key in the lock. _She's here!_

Everyone practically sprinted to the door in time to see Lena carrying Callie into the foyer. Callie looked surprisingly well for her condition. She didn't look sick or pale, she just looked a little scared, which was amazing, because Callie wanted to throw up, and her nerves were so bad.

"Hey guys, be careful, Callie's balance is off, and she's having a little trouble walking on her feet," Lena said. She carefully let go of Callie, like a kid carefully backing off a Jenga tower. Callie swallowed the lump in her throat and looked around her at the house she was in. Yes, this was the foyer she remembered walking into with Mariana. It was a beautiful house, much better than Liam's.

Everyone was quick to give Callie hugs. They were all careful to make sure they didn't push Callie over and touch her near her bullet wound. Callie was feeling dizzy, and her legs felt weak, like a new born deer's. She also felt a little tired.

"Guys, what if she doesn't want to eat?" Jude asked his older siblings. Stef watched her kids to see what he was talking about.

Everyone had already thought about it, and they decided that even if she had to go up to bed, there was no reason they couldn't enjoy their food to celebrate Callie coming home.

Jesus shrugged.

"Then we'll just have a celebration dinner without her," Jesus suggested.

"What celebration dinner?" Lena asked, laying her bags on the ground near the door.

"We cooked up a meal just for Callie, but if she had to go to bed and she can't eat, we can still have it," Jesus confessed.

Lena and Stef had never seen their kids like this. They felt so worried and passionate about Callie, they actually _made dinner._ Callie just looked around, wanting desperately to know what they were talking about.

"You guys cooked?" Stef asked in a mocking tone.

"Yep, we made stick wings, heated up those sweet potatoes, I made some lemonade, and Brandon picked up some cupcakes," Mariana said. She was nearly giggling. She was so happy, but so nervous, it all came out as giggles.

Lena wasn't so sure. She already felt hesitant about letting Callie out of the hospital so early. The brain isn't so strange that Callie would so quickly be normal, would she?

"I don't know guys, I think she needs to get some rest," Lena said.

She tapped Callie on the shoulder to grab her attention.

"Do you want to eat?" she asked Callie.

Callies face lighted up. She wasn't sure if anyone could hear it, but her stomach had been grumbling.

"Yes, I'm hungry," she signed.

The kids felt relieved. There labors had not gone to waste.

"Are you sure?" Lena asked, this time talking slowly because she did now know the signs for 'are' or 'sure'.

"Yes," Callie signed.

Mariana did a slight happy dance and they guided Callie to the kitchen. Callie really loved the feeling of the house. It felt like it could have came out of a magazine, but it was so cozy. She could tell that Lena and Stef must have been careful and selective with what they choose to bring into the house.

Callie's heightened sense of smell kicked in, and from the front of the house, she could smell the sweet wings she hadn't had in _years._

Callie grabbed Jude's shoulder.

"Wings?" she mouthed.

Jude smiled and nodded his head. He _knew _she would love it.

"Yeah… what's the sign for yes?" Jude asked Stef, and she showed him. He tried it out, and Callie kissed Jude's head, just because of nostalgia purposes.

Jesus quickly pulled the sweet potatoes out of the microwave.

"Hold on, I got put the marshmallows on these," Jesus said, grabbing the bag out of the cabinets.

Lena sat Callie down at the chair at the end of the table, the same one she had sat on her first dinner here. Callie looked at the lemonade, the wings, the cupcakes, and the sweet potatoes, and wondered if dinner was like this every night here.

"Wow, not bad you guys," Stef said, looking at all the sweets.

"Yeah, not bad," Lena agreed, taking a seat next to her children. Stef took the seat opposite of her.

Callie watched everything around her. There was so much motion, but it was all silent. Being deaf in the hospital was so different from being deaf at home, when everyone was talking to each other and moving around. Everyone was having a conversation that she couldn't understand. She knew she would _have _to learn to read lips.

Nonetheless, the Fosters family had the _perfect _meal. Callie's coordination was off however, and she was probably the messiest after eating, as she would occasional misguide a wing to her cheek. The fact that she was tired probably played a role in it also.

As Stef helped Callie clean off her face in the kitchen sink, Mariana crept into the family room and looked at their movie collection. She searched for Callie's movie; Orphan. She pulled the DVD out and checked the copyright date, which stated that the movie was released in 2009.

"Jude, do you think she would remember this movie?" Mariana asked, showing him the case.

"Guys, no movies, Callie needs to get to bed," Lena said.

"Would it be a bad thing if Callie fell asleep down here? We can give her the comfiest chair to sleep in," Mariana suggested.

Lena shook her head.

"No, that's not a good idea," Lena said.

Callie raised her head out of the sink and wiped her mouth, and saw Mariana holding the case. Something else she hadn't seen in years!

She walked up and grabbed the DVD and pointed at it to ask if anyone wanted to watch it.

"See, she wants to watch!" Jesus said.

Callie turned to her brother.

"It's on DVD?" she tried to ask by pointing to the DVD case and finger spelling D-V-D.

"Yes," Jude signed.

Lena's idea of tonight was really different from what was happening. She felt very strongly that Callie should go to bed and relax, not watch a movie.

Lena got up and walked to Callie.

"Don't you want to go to sleep?" Lena asked, signing what you could.

Callie shrugged.

"Yes, but can't we watch?" Callie mouthed, signing a little.

Lena wanted to put the brakes on it. Even Stef was hesitant about doing this. It just seemed like so much for Callie to do so soon, but hey, it what Callie wanted. It _was _just a movie, right?

Lena gave up, and sighed.

"Sure, why not?" she said. She grabbed the DVD and put it in the player.

Everyone grabbed a seat around the TV. Everyone gave Callie the blankets in case she fell asleep.

The movie started and Mariana remembered the cupcakes. She grabbed the boxes and handed everyone a cupcake.

"You love these," Mariana signed.

Callie almost wanted to laugh that her sister was insisting she loved cupcakes she had never even tried before, but when she took a bite, it was true. She knew they were store bought, but she had never tasted such a rich store bought cupcake, and there was a filling?

The movie caught a few minutes in. Callie turned to view her whole family. There were just so many people. When they were all listed on paper, it didn't seem as big, but when they were all together, pushed into one room, it just seemed so big.

"Are you okay?" Lena asked when she noticed Callie looking at her.

"Yes, big family," Callie signed.

Stef and Lena laughed. They knew they had a lot of kids, especially for 2013.

"Yes," Stef signed.

Callie chuckled, not sure if anyone could hear it.

Callie looked Stef in her kind eyes one more time, and turned back to the TV. Half an hour later, Callie had fallen asleep.

Her dreams felt so real… were they?

_Stef was explaining the rules to her in the kitchen. She remembered being annoyed._

_She, Stef, and Lena were sitting at the dining room table. Stef and Lena looked stressed. Were they mad at her? They were lecturing her about something. What was it?_

_Callie was sitting on the couch, the same one in the family room. Lena was sitting next to her, and she could tell it was serious. Callie's face hurt. She felt a scab on her lip. What happened to her?_

"_You don't know what it's like not to be wanted," she remembered herself saying. Who was she saying it to? Why was she saying it?_

_She was sitting on the side of some road with her hair in a ponytail. There was a guy sitting next to her. He was wearing a grey shirt, and his hair was curly and blonde. Who was this?_

_Callie was outside with Lena and Stef. She held onto a guitar as the three of them spoke._

_Now she was kissing the same blonde guy. Who was this?! Was this her boyfriend? Did she have a boyfriend?_

_Callie was crying to Stefs shoulder. She remembers gasping for hair and crying. She was in a lot of pain, but why?_

_She was outside a movie theater in a gray dress. It was dark out. Why was she out there alone?_

_She remembered seeing Lena in a beautiful lace gown with her hair pulled back, and Stef in a cream suit, her hair perfectly curled. Was this their marriage? Was she there when they got married?_

Her eyes fluttered open and the movie was still playing. She smiled to herself. This time she didn't have a bad memory, nothing traumatic for herself.

She tried to think though. What was it that triggered this sudden wave of flashbacks?

The last thing she looked at before she fell asleep was the movie, but surely the movie wouldn't trigger such emotional flashbacks. The thing she saw before looking back at the movie was Stef.

Stef! Of course, her mother triggered the flashbacks.

She turned to the curly haired blonde and she felt tears creep down her chin. This family… she was beginning to remember them.

Stef met Callie's gaze, and was scared at first when she saw her tears.

Callie just chuckled and looked away and began to wipe her tears away.

Stef got out of her chair and dropped to her knees next to Callie.

"Why are you crying?" Stef asked.

Callie smiled and pointed to her head.

"I'm remembering," she mouthed.


	9. If Nightmares Could Kill

Callie lay in her bed, comfortably asleep. After she woke up from the movie, she knew she wouldn't be able to stay awake to watch the rest of it, so she decided to just go to bed. Stef and Mariana helped to keep her as comfortable as she could be.

As Mariana prepared to turn in herself, Lena showed up in her doorway.

"Hey Mariana, before you go to bed, can I talk to you and your brothers?" she asked.

Mariana, annoyed, pulled her leg back out from under the sheets. She followed her mother into the hallway. Jesus and Jude were standing in their pajamas, and Brandon stood in his day clothes.

"Brandon, what are you still doing here?" Mariana asked him.

"Mom asked me to stay," he said.

"Yes, I asked him to stay because I need to talk to all of you," Lena started.

"What do you need to talk to us about?" Jesus asked.

Lena rubbed her hands together and wasn't sure if there was really any easy way to say this, it just had to be said.

"I have been notified that the school will open back up on Monday, so if you don't go, you will be tardy, but I don't want to pressure you guys to go, so if you want to take a few more days off, that will be okay," Lena said.

Mariana filled with fear. The school was already opening back up?! It seemed so long for Callie to get out of the hospital, but so soon for Mariana to walk the same halls she did when Callie was shot. Her classes were on the same floor; down the same hallway that Callie was shot. She would always have to look down that hallway where she last saw Callie before she was changed. Not to mention all the people that were in the same class she was in when Callie got shot. It was enough that everyone at school would know who they were and what happened to them, but those people in that class saw Mariana when she was at her absolute lowest. It would be extremely embarrassing to see them again, especially Zac and Kelsey.

Jesus looked over at sister, worried. He had also seen Mariana at her absolute lowest, and worried whether or not she could handle it.

Brandon fidgeted nervously. The school was open _this _Monday?

"Again, it's your choice. I don't know if any of us are ready to go back to that school, but I don't think you guys getting in the habit of ignoring school when a problem arises," Lena said.

Each Fosters kid thought carefully thought their decision, but none of them could decide. It was such a hard decision… to go or not to go?

"Can we have some time to think about it?" Jude asked his mother.

"Of course," Lena nodded her head.

"You take as much time as you need," she added, before going back to her bedroom.

Mariana began to shake uncontrollably. It started in her hands and arms. She managed to get out of the hallway before anyone could see.

She closed her bedroom door behind her and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. She felt like she could bend over and empty all the contents of her stomach right then and there.

She walked over to where Callie's bed was, and watched her sister sleep. She looked so peaceful. She felt an obligation to stay and help her sister. She couldn't save her that day, but she could at least help her sister heal.

She took a big swig of water in attempts to calm her stomach, and lay down on her bed, ready to go to sleep, her dreams taking over her.

_"Leave her out of this," Callie said, trying to shield her sister with her own body._

_"No," Talya said simply._

_Mariana heart beat started to race._

_"She likes you. She really likes you. Brandon likes her. Brandon loves Mariana. If you hurt Mariana, Brandon will hate. He will hate you, and he will never love you again. Brandon doesn't like me. If you hurt me, he won't care. Don't hurt Mariana," Callie said._

_Marianas heart broke._

"_If you hurt me, he won't care. Don't hurt Mariana."_

_"Mariana, this is you class. Go in there."_

"_This isn't my classroom."_

"_Yeah it is, see, there's Zac, and over there is Kelsey. Go in there."_

_Mariana walked into a dark classroom. Everything was black and dark red. She was the only one there._

"_Tell the teacher Talya has a gun."_

_Mariana searched. She looked up and down, left and right, but there was no teacher. There was no one. She saw children outside, but when she ran to the window to call out to them, the window covered itself with blood._

_Mariana whipped around. The once black wall was now clear. She tried to run through it, run to her sister in the hallway, but it was Plexiglas. She couldn't leave the room. The only thing she could do was watch, watch as her sister stood there, willingly, being shot by Talya, collapsing to the ground, and her blood spilling all over the place._

Mariana began to scream in her sleep.

"No! No!" she chanted. She began to kick her sheets around. She kept moving around on her bed, causing it to bounce.

The vibrations and her heightened sensitivity caused Callie to awake from her sleep. She looked around her bed, but found nothing weird. In the corner of her eye though, she saw Mariana bed sheets flying everywhere. She stood up to further explore what was happening.

When she saw Mariana moving around, she knew something was wrong. She couldn't hear what was going on though, so she turned Marianas bedside lamp on. She could see that Mariana was saying something, but she couldn't make it out.

She wasn't sure if waking up Mariana was necessarily a good idea, but she wanted to stop Mariana from hurting herself.

She grabbed Mariana as hard as she could, but she still wouldn't wake up. She tried pulling the sheets off of her, but it wouldn't help.

Finally, she dared to do something that she was scared to do.

She opened her mouth and pushed a sound of her that she couldn't even hear. She focused on being as loud as she could. She wasn't sure how loud that was, but it scared Mariana out of her dream, so it worked. Callie stopped screaming when Mariana woke up.

It also scared everyone else out of their dreams too.

Mariana stood up and grabbed her.

"What are you doing?" she asked her sister.

"I want you to stop," Callie signed.

Mariana felt guilt for upsetting her sister. She didn't even know what was happening.

The rest of the house was behind her in a hot second. Everyone heard the scream, and everybody wanted to see what was wrong.

"What's happening? Who's hurt?" Stef asked.

"Nobody, just go back to bed," Mariana said laying back into her bed. She rubbed her forehead, trying to let it go. She grabbed her sheets off the floor and placed them back on top of her.

Lena grabbed Callie's shoulder and pulled her around.

"What happened?" she asked her.

"Mariana kicked and screamed," Callie tried to show physically, as she didn't know the sign for any of it.

Lena understood though, so she looked at her daughter whose back was turned to her in her bed.

She patted her on the back to get her attention.

"Mariana, what happened?" Lena asked.

"Nothing, it was just a bad dream," Mariana said, trying to move past this embarrassing moment.

Lena could feel tears burning her eyes, but she blinked them back. She knew something like this would happen.

Callie was barely able to keep herself upright. She was still very tired.

"Callie, you can go to bed," Stef said.

Callie looked at everyone who was now staring at her, and she tried to ignore it as she laid back down in her bed.

"Mariana, do you want to come sleep with us?" Lena asked.

"We have the crack between our beds, remember?" Stef promptly reminded her.

Lena sighed.

"Well then we can sleep downstairs together," Lena said.

Mariana looked over at her sister bed, and she knew she would feel guilty if she tried to leave her here.

"No, I want to stay in here," Mariana said.

"Are you sure? If you had a nightmare, do you think being alone here with Callie will help?" Lena asked, worried.

Mariana nodded her head.

"I'll be fine," she said.

Lena slowly got up from Marianas bed, hesitantly. She felt unsure about letting Mariana sleep alone.

It seemed as though Mariana had made up her mind though, so everyone went back to their beds. Everyone nestled back to sleep, except for Mariana.


	10. The Breakthrough, and the Let Down

Callie quickly passed back out. Even though the light was still on and it bothered her, she managed to easily ignore. Her dreams took over her as well, but she did not get only bad memories. Her flashbacks were so long and vivid, they couldn't all be listed or remembered. The only thing she could remember when she woke up was the unity of her family. Through her dreams, Callie literally learned how to love her family.

Stef was a police officer. Brandon was her son with her ex-husband. She and Lena got married. She _was _there. Stef was strong and tough, but she was very funny and loving. Callie didn't always like her, but she grew to love her.

Lena was biracial, and she was the vice principal of Callie's school… the one she got shot at. The second Callie got out of Juvie, Lena took her in. Lena was the caring one.

Callie got sent to Juvie because she ruined her foster father's car to protect Jude. Callie and Brandon saved Jude. Callie and Brandon also had a relationship, even though it is forbidden. There was also a boy named Wyatt, that curly haired boy.

Brandon loved music. He dated Talya, the girl who shot Callie. Brandon kept doing such risky things to be with her, but they broke up.

Jesus was Marianas twin. He had ADHD, and he was on the wrestling team.

Mariana and Jesus were in the foster system as well. She was very smart and girly. That was probably why their bedroom was so bright and preppy. She's popular at school and speaks Spanish, and so does Jesus. She even pierced her nose.

Jude was such a quiet kid, but she remembers him getting more and more talkative and energetic. His best friend was Connor.

She even remembered Mike.

The sun crept through the curtains. The sunlight hit Callie's eyes and she slowly opened them. She smiled, just as she did when she woke up from her dream while watching the movie the night before. She looked to her side and saw her phone sitting there. She picked it up to check the time; 12:15 PM. She slowly raised her tired body to see if Mariana was still there, but her bed was empty, so Callie decided to get up. Her achy feet hit the floor, and she felt something fuzzy on her heels. She bends down, and saw some blue slippers. She smiled and pulled them on. They felt like heaven to her sore body as she began to walk, as they were cushioned. She slumped outside her bedroom just as Jude was coming out. She smiled again and opened her arms out for hug. Jude smiled and walked into her arms.

"How are you feeling?" Jude signed.

"Good. Really good," Callie signed. Jude cocked his eyebrow. He hadn't seen his sister this happy in a long time.

"Why?" Jude signed.

"I had a really, really good dream last night," Callie said, signing what she could. Jude shrugged. If his sister was happy, there was nothing wrong with that. Callie turned and saw Lena in her doorway with her bright robe tied up, smiling.

"Can I talk to you?" Callie asked. Lena nodded.

"Yeah, of course," she said, walking to her.

"Stef too," Callie interjected before Lena could take more than a couple steps.

"Yeah," Lena said. She turned back and walked into her bedroom where Stef was getting ready for the day.

"Callie wants to talk to us," Lena said.

"She's awake?" Stef asked, trying to pull on her slippers.

"Yeah," Lena said. She too was surprised that Callie would be so awake after coming home. Perhaps it wasn't so strange, she didn't sleep too much more than Lena and Stef did in the hospital. Maybe the brain is a mysterious thing. Lena and Stef followed Callie downstairs. As she started walking down the stairwell, Callie got a little dizzy, but she just grasped onto the handrail even harder. When she came down, they ran into Brandon. Callie had no idea he could be here.

"What are you doing here?" Callie said, signing what little she could, but as Brandon didn't know a lot of sign language, he turned to his moms for guidance.

"She's asking that you're doing here," Lena clarified.

"We asked him to do some work and help around the house," Stef told Callie. Callie signed an okay and continued on into the dining room. Stef and Lena followed. Callie took a seat at the table, and asked for a piece paper and a pen. Lena walked into the living room and grabbed some stationary from the table and came back to the dining table, handing Callie the paper and a pen. Callie began writing down what she felt she needed to tell them the most.

_Last night, I think I might have overcome my memory block. Can I ask you some things just to see if I really did?_

Stef and Lena read the piece of paper, and they felt many emotions. They were happy that she might actually remember them and know who they were, but skeptical that she really did know who they were.

"Yes, yes, of course," they said. They handed the pen and paper back Callie, and she began writing her questions down.

_Is Stef a cop?_

_Is Brandon Stef and Mikes son?_

_Was I at your wedding?_

_Is Lena biracial?_

_Is Lena the vice principal at the school I was shot at?_

_Did I get into Juvie for smashing someone's car?_

_Did Brandon and I have a relationship?_

_Did I date a guy with curly blonde hair?_

_Did Brandon's ex-girlfriend shoot me?_

_Are Jesus and Mariana twins?_

_Does Jesus have ADHD?_

_Does he wrestle?_

_Do they both speak Spanish?_

_Did Mariana pierce her own nose?_

_Was Jude's best friend Connor?_

Stef and Lena happily signed "yes" to all of these questions. It's true; Callie knew most of everything, from the small stuff to the little stuff. Lena could feel tears creep down her cheeks as she came to thank the universe for giving Callie her memory back. This meant that Callie might actually be okay with them adopting her. She might love them again. They all happily rejoiced, and hugged and cried and hugged and cried some more. They weren't sure what their next step would be, but they were sure it would be positive.

"Well, I think I also have some good news," Lena began. Callie turned her complete attention to Lena. Lena grabbed the paper and began to write everything down.

_We are going to take you to audiologist to see if you can possible get a hearing aid, and if you can start hearing again._

Callie felt a whole new wave of happiness and relief comes over her. She could hear again? Was that even a possibility? Lena grabbed the paper again.

_Don't set your hopes too high. They may not be able to fully restore your hearing, but that's okay. Even if a hearing aid does nothing to help, we will continue to make changes. We will all adapt with you Callie. You won't go through this alone._

Callie still smiled though. She looked back up to her moms and nodded her head. Even if she could never hear again, she just wanted to know that she wouldn't be alone. Callie knew she could adapt to being deaf, but not to perpetually being depressed.

_**Three Days Later**_

Stef and Lena held hands as they waited for the doctor to come back in. They were at the audiologist office, and they had been there for hours. Callie had to go through many hours of hearing tests and examinations. None of them really understood what all these tests did. Each one seemed to have a different purpose, all leading up to one question: Could Callie ever hear again? Callie had the worst of it though. This doctor knew all the sign language he would ever need to know, but Callie didn't. She only got the tiniest bit of what he said most of the time. When he managed to figure out that Callie was having real trouble understanding him, he pulled out a piece of paper and a marker, but he didn't take his time to write everything out. He was obviously in a rush, and it eventually became clear that it was because there was so much to do.

There were all sitting on the chairs in front of the desk. All three of them felt the acid in their stomach get higher and higher the longer they waited. Callie fought to hold back her tears. She didn't want to seem weak in front of her mothers. She didn't want to seem ungrateful for this probably thousand dollar doctor visit. She was so thankful for everything her moms had done for her, but she wasn't sure if weakness was an option.

She reached over and grabbed her mother's hand, taking Stef by surprised. She of course felt happy that her daughter was holding her hand, but she knew it was because she was scared. Stef pulled her hand back and pulled her daughter in for a hug.

Callie took a deep breath in of Stef floral perfume. She _loved _Stefs perfume. One of Callie's first memories from being in the hospital was waking up to see Stef spraying her perfume all over her body, and the intoxicating scent took over Callie's heightened smell. She had mini flashbacks to waking up in the hospital and being totally confused about who these girls were, and why they were so sweet when Callie didn't remember them. Callie decided, screw it. She began to cry into Stefs shoulder, finding comfort in her mother finally.

Stef held her daughter tight, letting her cry. Lena also leaned over and rubbed her daughter's knee. As typical clichés go, the doctor walked in just as Callie began to finally let her emotions out.

Callie gathered herself as the doctor came around and sat on the other side of the desk. He was hesitant about where to begin, so he decided he would start with telling Callie first. He pulled out another piece of paper and used a marker to write his message. All three girls watched as her scribbled down for what felt like decades, but was really only about 30 seconds.

He handed the paper to Callie, and only Callie, so she could read the doctors determination while he told her parents. Callie opened the paper and began reading.

"What that basically says is that from all the tests, and I believe that Callie's hearing is definitely permanent, and she has reached deaf status. She is not just hard of hearing, she can't hear at all. I'm sure you guys already know that. You have brought her to me and trusted me to decide what would be the best option for Callie if she decides she wants her hearing back," the doctor began.

"I unfortunately think that something like a hearing aid will not be of much use to Callie. Most deaf people prefer using a hearing aid, but it doesn't really do anything. They only option for Callie would be a cochlear," the doctor threw out there. Lena and Stef tensed at the thought of a cochlear.

"I wouldn't recommend that for Callie, as she is still recovering from the shooting and had already multiple surgeries, including brain surgery. We don't know, she may grow into it. She may be okay with being deaf," he added.

Callie looked up from her sheet of paper. Judging by the look on her face, she wasn't very okay with it.


	11. Tough Love

Lena and Stef rubbed Callie's hands. They had returned home from the audiologist office, and Callie was still reeling from the news she had gotten. It wasn't that she would hate being deaf, it's that she didn't have a choice. Because of Callie's circumstances, Callie was totally deaf. Most people don't realize it, but most deaf people aren't totally deaf, but because Callie suffered from a brain injury, her brain didn't make sense of any of the sounds around her. That's why a hearing aid would not be helpful to her. That's also why, as the audiologist would go on to explain, a cochlear may not be useful, in fact, it probably wouldn't. If Callie's brain couldn't process the sound, than a cochlear wouldn't help, because she still wouldn't make sense of the sound. Lena and Stef had generally opposing viewpoints, though they did not discuss them yet.

Lena felt that Callie getting a cochlear was not totally out of the question. Lena always believed that if there was a chance for anything, than it was worth pursuing. If Callie wanted her hearing back, and a cochlear could possibly help, then the least she could do was let Callie try it out. Even if the cochlear did not help at all, at least they all could say that they tried.

Stef however, is the kind of person that if she sees no guaranteed outcome, then why bothers? She didn't want Callie to go through all kind of surgery and pain for nothing. She also didn't want to see Callie get her hopes up and try to get her hearing back, only for her to never regain it.

It was a hard decision for both of them. Neither of them wanted to see Callie as disappointed as she was today again. She didn't want Callie to feel like they had failed her, but one way or another, they would. They felt that there was a hope she could use a hearing aid to make at least some sense of sound, but that went down the drain. They had different opinions on whether or not they should try the cochlear, but neither wanted Callie to go through any pain and disappointment if it didn't work.

Lena tried to clear her mind and move down her agenda. It felt cruel, trying to move from one thing to the next when all her children were hurting, but she was hurting too, and she needed to quickly move past it, and moving down her list of things she needed to do was the only way she knew how.

"I think we should talk to everyone about therapy," Lena said to Stef. Stef and Lena had talked about possibly sending the kids to therapy to help them with their pain and trauma, especially Mariana. After Mariana had the nightmare that caused Callie to scream in the middle of the night, Lena knew Mariana must have been in a frantic state for Callie to do that. At the hospital, when the audiologist there tried to get Callie to even whisper, she would chicken out. She was scared to talk if she couldn't hear herself. So what made her scream just wake her sister up? She felt that therapy was imminent, but when Jude later admitted to her that night that he had nightmares every night since Callie got shot, she knew it was not an option. Even Jesus hopped on the band wagon, and said that even he had some nightmares about shooters in his home, and not being able to protect everyone.

Stef tensed. She didn't like the whole idea of taking her kids to strangers, plopping them down, and then forcing them to talk about a traumatic event to a stranger who judge what they should do next. It seemed too much like when her father took her to the church, and forced a stranger to tell her she was wrong for loving a woman. However, after Lena had admitted what Jude and Jesus had said, she became determined to help her kids. She felt she needed to do whatever she had too, like she owed to them. She didn't know why, she just felt like it was her duty.

Lena grabbed a piece of paper from the table behind her in the dining room. After this morning, she realized she didn't want to go running around the house whenever Callie needed to write something down, or if she needed to write something down, so she put a little table with some pens and a paper in every room.

_We are going to go talk to the other kids for a little while. We will give you some time to process the news. Is that okay?_

Callie just nodded her head and left to go to her room. She just couldn't stand the fact that everything that's happened to her… it was really permanent. Her hearing was totally gone. She was literally deafer then deaf people. The doctor had explained the different levels of deafness, and Callie was as the very top, or bottom, depending on how one looks at it. The shaven patch on the back of her head, the bullet wound in her back, the complete silence in her life, they were all proof that someone really hated Callie so much; she didn't care if Callie's how life was turned upside down, or even ended, and Callie couldn't quite understand what she had done to deserve it. She had spent so much time trying to convince everyone she was okay, that Callie needed some time to just feel bad for herself. She deserved some self pity. She earned it. She headed upstairs and lay in her bed, pretending to fall back asleep until Mariana would leave.

Stef and Lena soon gathered up the rest of their kids and sat them at the table. Stef decided she would talk to Brandon about therapy later. All three siblings sat and waited for the mothers to say something. They weren't quite sure why they had been called in, but it seemed serious, judging from the look on the mothers faces. Lena was the first on to sit down and begin talking.

"Stef and I have been watching every single one of you with the same careful eye we have been watching Callie with. What happened to Callie is something very traumatic, something that no one should ever have to go through. Unfortunately, it was in a way, inevitable. Talya is obviously a very sick person. Anyone who tries to hurt another person like that is. No one could have seen this coming, which is why we really want you guys to understand that there is nothing you could have done to change any of this," Lena began. Mariana could already feel herself kicking herself, but she did it anyways; she let the same anger and guilt she had experiences before build up in her. The same feeling that made her has terrible dreams.

"That's not true. I was there, I could have saved her," Mariana spat out. She didn't make a big deal out of her words. She simply spitted them out as facts. It _was _a fact that Mariana could have saved her sister, but even Mariana knew what a stupid thing that would have been to do. Still, she continued to say that she should have done it and that she wanted to do it.

Stef sighed in frustration. She had told her daughter many times why she could not have just saved Callie. It wasn't as simple as that.

"Mariana, do you remember what I told you in the hospital after Callie was shot?" Stef said. Mariana shook her head. Not because she was trying to ignore it or because she was so traumatized she didn't remember anything at the hospital, but because she wasn't sure that her mother was talking about. Stef said a lot of stuff at the hospital. Stef leaned in and looked Mariana in the eye. What she was going to tell Mariana was not going to be easy, but she needed to hear it.

"I told you that if you had stayed to help Callie, Talya would have shot you as well," Stef said, stirring up Mariana's memory.

"I said that, because it was true. She would have shot you. I also hate to think that, because Jesus was in the room opposite of yours and right outside where Callie was shot that if he hadn't gotten into that classroom before Talya saw him, he would have gotten shot too," Stef said. She shifted her attention to Jesus as well. Jesus shifted his eyes away, processing what his mother just said. He never even thought of that… his other class was only a few doors down, so it literally only took him a few seconds to get to that classroom. Talya probably wasn't even at her locker by then.

"Talya is a very sick girl. Now that doesn't justify what she did to your sister, but it does justify why shouldn't have done _anything _differently," Stef said.

"I was about to make a round through the school before Callie got shot. I was going to go to the classes and check on the different rooms, and I planned on going in that very hallway. Do you know how much guilt _I _had about that?" Lena confessed. Stef was shocked by her loves words. She cocked her head to continue listening.

"If I had done the rounds like I planned, then I would have run into Callie and Talya before Callie got shot, but as time went on, I discovered that that doesn't mean everything would be okay or that I could save her. It means I would have watched my daughter get shot," Lena said. Stef turned back to her kids and continued speaking.

"What we are trying to say is something that may not help the shooting feel any less traumatic, but it's what you need to hear. If all of you, including Brandon had been there right before Callie got shot, it would have changed everything. You guys could have run to her and stopped her, but Talya had a gun in her pocket that she could have quickly pulled out. You could have formed a shield in front of Callie, but given that Talya is mentally unstable, she probably would have shot all of you to get to Callie. Sometimes we don't want to believe that doing nothing was the better option, but sometimes it is. In this case, it was better for you guys to do nothing then for all of you to go out there and get shot trying to protect your sister," Stef said. All the kids felt sick to their stomach, but Mariana said what they were all thinking.

"I just want to believe that I could have gotten hurt saving her, not that she would have gotten hurt any ways," Mariana said. Stef nodded her head. She understood how she felt. As a cop, she understood what it felt like to get there too late to save someone, or to know that if she had stood two feet to the left or right, she could have saved someone.

"If you think that way, it will eat you up. It will eat you up inside until there is nothing left of you. The fear would have swallowed you whole and you would not even be alive in your own body anymore. That's why you can't think that way," Lena said.

"So why did you call us down here? To tell us that our sister getting shot in the head is something we could have never changed?" Jesus snapped. Lena and Stef were both surprised at his sudden anger, but they had prepared for this. They handled it the best they could.

"No, we got side tracked. We brought you down here to tell you that we want you guys to start therapy. I know I said earlier that you could decide whether or not you wanted to go to school on Monday, but I have to say, I am really, really hesitant about letting you walk those hallways by yourself, which is why I don't want you to go to school until you guys have all seen a therapist a couple of times to learn some coping techniques," Lena said. To different degrees, each Foster sibling was skeptical about therapy. Each one even questioned if it was right for them. They were like Stef in the regard, if they weren't sure it was right for them, should they even try it?

"I have to say, I don't know if therapy would be the right route for us to follow as a family, but I am just so frustrated at this point, anything for us to just be a calm, peaceful family who can focus on Callie's recovery I am willing to give a try. Mediation, eating healthier, anything," Stef sighed.

Lena had never seen Stef open so much in front of her own kids. She could imagine that those were words she probably originally reserved for Stef and only Stef, but everyone had been beaten down over the past week or so, that everyone was just on edge. Luckily, Stef said something she wouldn't later regret. Everyone took a moment to think everything that got thrown around through, and each child wondered what therapy would be like. Jude remembered when he was young; probably around four, his mom and dad put Callie in therapy. Even at the young age, Callie had anger problems. He remembered going to family therapy, even though it was a distant family, and the whole thing upsetting Callie so much, she got a head ache that day. He wasn't sure how long he was there, but he thought is must have been a few hours. Callie lay down with her head in her dads lap, crying in pain. That was the only time he remembered being in therapy, and he hoped to god it was nothing like that.

"So, we got Callie's doctor's appointments scattered throughout the week, school starts on Monday, and therapy is scheduled for tomorrow. Now if you don't mind I'm going to wash down a Xanax with a pitcher of margaritas," Stef said, frustrated, and she got up to leave the table, but seeing the look on Lena's face suggested that that was the wrong thing to say.

"I'm kidding, I don't even have any Xanax, or margarita mix," she said, kissing her wife's head before taking a nap in her bed.

Lena crept upstairs to see her daughter. Callie was currently flipping through some of Mariana's beauty magazines. Callie had cried herself out into her pillow, and when she finished, she relaxed and just grabbed something to read. Lena held the piece of paper she wanted to show her daughter in her hands delicately. When Callie noticed her mother, she put down the magazine, seeing that her mother wanted to talk. Lena sat on the bed and rubbed her daughter's legs before handing her the paper.

_Don't tell your mom, but maybe in a year, after you have healed, we can talk about getting a cochlear?_

Callie felt like it was practically useless for her to even think about getting a cochlear. The doctor said that hear deafness was caused by a brain injury. He then said that Callie was totally deaf. Not just deaf, totally and completely deaf. He then went on to say that if Callie's brain couldn't make sense of sound, then it wouldn't matter how many surgeries and hearing aids she uses. Her brain won't magically make sense because a little device tells it too. It sounded like to Callie that a cochlear was useless.

Still, she nodded and smiled. She could tell the people around her were really trying, and she didn't want to seem ungracious.

* * *

**_Hey guys! I just wanted to say that you guys are awesome! I know I don't say it a lot, but you are! I love the reviews I am getting back, and I love that I am getting so many so quickly. It make me feel very motivated, and when you say its written very well, I really get happy. I have never written a story in so much detail before. Another thing is that I like seeing how you guys react to everything. Right now I am playing around with the idea of a cochlear for Callie, but I can't decide if that's something you guys would like. Also, after Mariana, Jesus, Jude, Brandon, and Callie all eventually head back to school, I'm not quite sure what else there is to do. I'm not quite on Writers Block Avenue, but I'm in that neighborhood, so I would love love love love LOVE to hear what you guys think, because you guys usually have some good ideas :)_**


	12. Bi-polar?

_**Hello lovelies! I am so sorry it has been over a month since I last updated. I have just literally had a lot of stuff going on, and I hit a writers block. I feel so guilty for no continuing the story, and I am going on vacation Friday-Sunday, so I decided to get at least one chapter up before I go, and hopefully I will get another one up before Friday. Again, I am so sorry!**_

* * *

Stef tried to egg herself on to push the power button off, but she just couldn't. She needed to know more about this. No one would tell her, or her family, about the state the trial was in.

On the news, it was a constant replay of the same old, same old. Everyone wanted to know about the shooting, everyone wanted to know why Talya did it, and everyone wanted to know what happened to Callie. It sickened Stef to think that there were so many people in the world that only wanted news on these two girls. Even Talya didn't deserve the constant bombarding she was getting. Talya was _sick, _and while that didn't give her an excuse to shoot Callie in her head and back, it didn't mean Talya should be treated the way she was.

Still, Stef knew Talya had to pay. There was no question about it. No 'if's', no 'buts'', no 'possibility' about it. Sick or not, Talya had to be out of society. She's a harm to everyone she is near. If she could do this to Callie at the tender age of sixteen, who's to say what else she could do? In a way, Stef was glad that it happened like this. At least now Talya could be kept in mental rehab or prison and not harm anyone, and hopefully Callie was the only person Talya would ever hurt. Either way, Callie survived, and now Talya would be going to where she needs to be.

Right now, Stef watched the screen as the news reporters spoke of Talya's trial, speaking about the possibility that Talya would plea not guilty by reason of insanity. Stef knew that Talya was clearly insane, but whether the judge would see that was an entirely different question. The guy who tried to kill Reagan was not guilty by reason of insanity. Talya was just a girl who killed her ex-boyfriends ex-girlfriend/sister.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Lena walk slowly into the TV room. Lena was very hesitant about letting the kids watch the TV anymore. The constant news and lies and drama put out into the world by the news were enough to make anyone sick about the humanity of news reporters anymore. She certainly didn't want her children watching the craziness of the news. She herself didn't even want to watch it, and knowing Stefs temper, she didn't want her watching it either. Stef knew this, because she knew Lena. Lena always wanted to take the passive, calm way out, but she didn't.

"Their saying that Talya is going to plead not guilty by reason of insanity," Stef reported. Lena felt a strange pinge inside her. It wasn't the same kind of pinge of sadness she constantly felt recently, or the same kind of pinge of confusion or anger, but rather of guilt. Lena knew something about Talya that no one else in the family did, but with everything that had happened to them so quickly with Callie and the shooting, she never found a time to tell everyone, even though she so desperately wanted to.

"Well, that's not a huge stretch of truth, is it?" Lena suggested. Lena felt uncomfortable in her own skin, and was slightly relieved when Stef finally turned the TV off.

"That depends on whether she's actually crazy or not," Stef said. She picked up her bowl that once held popcorn and her empty soda can from the couch and table and headed towards the kitchen while Lena fought this strange feeling inside her. Did Lena have an obligation to speak up? Probably not, but she knew that Stef would definitely be made at her if she kept it from her.

"I don't know if crazy is the right term," Lena started. She could already hear Stef scoffing in the kitchen, and she pushed herself to spit the rest of her words out.

"More like bi-polar," Lena finally got out. She felt like she had been winded. It was not an easy thing for her to do.

Stef stopped moving. She literally froze in place. Lena knew? Lena knew that Talya had bi-polar disorder? It was only now that she mentioned it?! Their daughter was shot and Lena held information that could be helpful, but it was only _now _that she mentioned it? Stef slowly turned her body to look at Lena, and Lena had already turned herself around to gaze into Stefs eyes. They stood in silence for a few moments before Stef finally spoke up.

"You knew that Talya has bi-polar disorder?" Stef asked. Lena felt hot and sticky and itchy. She could feel the pressures on her. She didn't want Stef to think that she was hiding it from her. Honest to god, Lena only kept quiet because she couldn't find any time to bring it up. If they weren't at the hospital, they were taking Callie to rehabs and doctors or taking the kids to their sports and activities, or they were sleeping, because taking care of a child who was shot at sixteen was exhausting work. Lena could feel her eyes burning just thinking about it.

"Yes, I know that Talya has bi-polar disorder. In order for her to take her medication at school, all the student have to turn in papers to give to the nurse to bring medicine to school. They went through me first, and I saw that she had bi-polar disorder. Her parents reassured the principal and me that Talya was taking medication and that she was seeing a psychiatrist and doctor regularly, and that it was under control. I guess she stopped taking her medication," Lena said. Stefs mind felt blown. Sweet Talya was so disturbed? The same cute red head that used to date her son, gave Mariana girl advice, who brought over her moms casseroles all the time? She didn't even know that someone with bi-polar disorder could do such a thing. Was it really that intense a disorder?

"Can people with bi-polar disorder really just do that?" Stef asked. She had never heard of this happening. Not because of bi-polar at least.

"There's no telling what those kinds of people can do. I mean, I knew the bi-polar can strongly affect someone's emotions, but I didn't think that it would cause Talya to try to kill Callie," Lena admitted. Neither of them really knew much about bi-polar. They just knew that when it was untreated, it was not pretty, and even dangerous. Not just to that person, but to the people around them as well.

Lena's eyes got more watery every micro-second. She felt as though she could barely hold it in anymore, and she could burst at any moment, like a water-balloon. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to feel guilty for not telling Stef, or if she was supposed to do anything at all. She felt so uncertain about it all, that she didn't know how to handle herself. She could feel the tiny tickles and stickiness of tears falling down her cheek that just felt so normal and typical anymore. Stef watched her, not sure as to what to do, because she wasn't exactly sure why Lena was crying.

"Are you crying?" Stef asked, though she knew the answer. Lena wiped her tears and tried to pull herself together, the way she had for days. She felt that tears were a sign of weakness, and showing them around her kids would possibly tell the kids that their lives were broken or that they were damaged, and with four kids in the house, one could pop up any moment.

Stef never expressed this concern to Lena, but Stef had seen and watched the way that Lena would 'pull herself together'. The way she would try to pull herself together in front of the kids, before walking out her bedroom door, even before she got up in the morning. She just knew that Lena must have been swallowing her feeling down to go on throughout her day. It was almost like she was drinking alcohol to numb the pain for the rest of the day, only, Lena didn't drink. She just swallowed her feeling, numbed herself, and went on her day. Not even Stef had the strength to do that. Perhaps Lena was stronger than anyone ever gave her credit for.

"Don't do that," Stef asked. Lena looked her love in the eyes, confused.

"Don't do what? Cry?" Lena asked.

"Don't swallow your feelings down. Don't numb your own pains," Stef said, walking over to her, putting her arms around her beautiful, strong wife.

"Don't hide how you feel. Your feelings matter just as much as everyone else's," she sighed into Lena shoulder. Lena decided that she would let her shell break, just this one time. She leaned into Stefs warm embrace and allowed a few tears to run down. In her head, meanwhile, she couldn't stop thinking about Talya.


End file.
